Classical Music

Classical Music

(also known as Formal Music)

Classical Music is part of a broad generalization about the structure and function of music throughout history and across the globe, describing traditional genres of music distinct from Traditional Folk Music and Popular Music developed in the 20th century. Genres are typically classified as Classical in recognition of their own culture considering them a form of art separate from and more "sophisticated" than its Traditional Folk. Classical Musics tend to exist in relatively unified form on territories much larger than Traditional Folk genres do, thus overlapping several separate Traditional Folk areas. They usually begin as a "refined" version of Traditional Folk created for ceremonial use and often continue to take inspiration from and have influence on Traditional Folk later in their history.

However, there exists a couple of common features that can be used to indicate how and when a genre ceases to be Traditional Folk and develops as something "Classical". These two seem to be intertwined: It could be said that Classical forms of music are preferred by priests/royalty/scholars due to their perceived higher complexity and refinement. But at the same time it is this preference and patronage that enables the musicians to train full time, giving them opportunities to improve their skills and develop the music. That full-time training sets Classical music apart from Folk in terms of performance - contrary to Folk genres, almost every Classical genre around the world has a rather rigid norm of a "correct" performance and "correct" compositional structure. Although Classical music in its model form originates from professional musicians, its appreciation and amateur performance can be and often is widespread in the society.

Given that the concept of Classical music seems to be absent in non-hierarchical societies, it could be assumed that the support of some kind of an elite (economic, social, scholarly, religious) is necessary for the development of Classical music. Also, the distinction between Classical Music and Folk music can be viewed as reflecting the hierarchy in a society. This kind of music is known under dozens of different names across the globe; they often suggest some kind of superiority (e.g. Polish muzyka poważna = "serious music", Korean 정악 = "proper music", common "art music") reflecting its status privileged by customary cultural biases.

Aak

Aak music, or "elegant" music, is a sub-genre of Korean Classical Music that dates back to the early 12th century. Confucius used the term to separate this form of music from that perceived to be "ugly and destructive". Originally referring to the sacrificial ritual music of China, it was later used to apply to generalised royal ancestral court music, banquet music, and/or processional music.

It is the counterpart to Hyang-ak and Dang-ak, which are intended for the lower and middle classes - whilst aak is for the upper class or royalty. Lyrics revolved around praise of the current leader and performances were, and are still highly specialised in their playing and accompanying dancing.

Aak originated around 1116, as a gift from China, and was derived from the Chinese Yayue music of the time. Aak also shares similarities to the Japanese Gagaku. It survived a short while before dying off, until it saw a brief revival in 1430. In modern times, only two surviving pieces are still performed.

Al-Maqam Al-Iraqi

Al-Maqam Al-Iraqi is an old form of Iraqi-Arabic Classical Music, considered by some as the most perfect utilization of the Arabic maqam modal system. The genre is built around set structures which consist of specific vocal maqam modes, whereby certain singing forms are used to perform poems (in Classical Arabic or in the Iraqi colloquial dialect) to the backing of an ensemble. Traditionally, the ensemble backing the mughanni (solo vocalist) would consist of the santur, the jawza, the tabla and the riqq.

Andalusian Classical

(also known as Arab-Andalusian)

Although the origins of Andalusian classical music are unsure, it is generally thought that it had its beginnings in the Emirate of Cordoba (in Al-Andalus, the region of the Iberian Peninsula under Moorish control) in the 9th century, and sometimes Abu l-Hasan (also known as Ziryâb) is credited in particular as its inventor. It spread across North Africa, and is now most associated with Morocco.

Arabic Classical

This tradition of Arabic classical music dates back to guidelines for modulation, rhythm and tuning set down in treatises in the 8th and 9th centuries. Like much pan-Islamic music, Arabic classical is modal (based on the maqam system) and monophonic, utilizing un-equal temperament. Unlike Arabic Folk Music, Arabic classical relies heavily on complex improvisation and modulation. Instrumental improvisations, called taqsim, generally features a solo performer, usually on a string instrument like the oud. Vocal music is accompanied by a small ensemble (as in Al-Maqam Al-Iraqi) and often involves modal improvisation (layali) and/or the recitation of poetic texts (muwashshah, mawwal).

In the 20th century Egypt was the center of activity for classical music, due to a growing entertainment and recording industry in Cairo. This led to the development of Traditional Arabic Pop, which was strongly influenced by traditional classical music.

Major modern classical artists include Munir Bashir, Yûsuf Omar and فريد الأطرش‎ [Farid el- Atrache].

Ars antiqua

(also known as Ars veterum, Ars vetus)

Ars antiqua represents mainly sacred European medieval music from the period of 1170 to 1310. Ars antiqua marks the birth of the measure of time in music, the notion of "artist" for the composer who now can have a name - instead of being an unknown artisan working for "the eternity of God"; also the creation of the first polyphonies for four voices almost freed from the Plainsong and ternary beat domination. The genre got its name from the composers of the next musical period, Ars nova, in opposition to their new way of structuring musical polyphonies.

One of the first and primary composers of ars antiqua (near 1170-1310) is Pérotin (or Perotinus the Great) who wrote the first polyphonies for four voices: Sederunt principes / Adjuva me, Domine Deus meus and Viderunt omnes / Notum fecit Dominus salutare suum. To achieve those masterworks, he utilized the measure of time in music. In fact, it was impossible to coordinate four voices together without counting time.

At the time of ars antiqua, the Roman Catholic Church was trying to create a new Roman Empire by imposing a unique language, religion, way of living and singing in their territory. To reach that aim, the Church forced composers to use plainsong (or Gregorian Chant) all the time in sacred music to avoid new ideas in the circles of power (political and spiritual) and prevent the birth of an individualism or patriotism that would bring the end of the empire. The other obligation in music was to use only ternary beats because the Church believed in the Trinity. To avoid those constraints, Pérotin slowed down plainsong to be unrecognizable (but no priest could say it wasn't there on the manuscript) and to create a beat that was complex enough to present binary and ternary beats at the same time. These inventions would slowly but surely lead to ars nova (1310-1380).

Ars nova

(also known as New Art, New Technique)

Ars nova (new art) is a Medieval Classical Music period (around 1310-1380) succeeding Ars antiqua (ancient art). The name of the genre was created by composers who were comparing their new way of writing music to what had been created by the few generations preceding them. For example, Philippe de Vitry, a composer and a musical theorist, named his musical treatise on new music of the time "ars nova."

Ars nova can be recognized by the way it mixes the sacred with the secular (texts and/or melodies), a subject of controversy in the Roman Catholic Church at the time. The notions of melody versus rhythm are also crucial in ars nova. New ideas in musical notation enabled composers to develop more complex rhythmic structures and also to cut the rhythm of a melody (or color) by following a repeated rhythmic sequence (talea) that has nothing in common with the melody. This technique, called isorhythm, creates surprising results when the color, used in different parts of a polyphony, follows a talea at different time: the juxtaposition of the different parts creates notes with unpredictable pitches and durations. The listener doesn't easily recognize the original melody and has the feeling of constantly swinging from chaos to harmony.

Ars subtilior

(also known as Ars subtilissima, post modum subtiliorem comparantes, artem magis subtiliter)

During the final period of late medieval music (around 1380-1420), ars subtilior succeeded Ars nova. It still used the technique of isorhythm invented by theorists and composers of the preceding period but with even more complexity. The result is so refined that the musicologist Richard H. Hoppin wrote, "not until the twentieth century did music again reach the most subtle refinements and rhythmic complexities of the manneristic style."

If ars nova's mix of the sacred and the secular offended the Roman Catholic Church, ars subtilior's works are mainly secular songs created for a small public of connoisseurs. In the history of art, this musical genre corresponds to the International Gothic and Flamboyant Gothic styles in painting and architecture. These arose directly before the Renaissance Period, which was characterized by the discovery and use of perspective, the taste for harmony, balance and light between the voices in music and philosophy (humanism).

Baisha Xiyue

(also known as Baisha Fine Music, Baisha Orchestral Music, Baisha Traditional Music)

Baisha xiyue refers to a traditional genre from the Naxi people of the Yunnan province in China, now remaining as one of the two surviving styles of Naxi traditional music. The genre originated in Baisha, a town located near the north of Lijiang. Most rumors claim that it originated in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by Mongolian immigrants in Yunnan, headed by emperor Kublai Khan, who left much of the musical scores that later integrated into the genre's core. Another major influence was the ritual music played in Taoist and Confucian ceremonies of the time period. Originally dedicated to warriors lost in a battle between the Naxi and Pumi, the genre developed to have an often funereal nature.

Usually in baisha xiyue performers are divided in 3 groups by instrumentation. The number of instrumentalists in each category is flexible, ranging from 3 to 10 performers in each.

1. Flute, clarinet, bobo (a bamboo made instrument), shawm (traditional woodwind instrument)

2. Chinese lute, Chinese zither (now barely used in modern ensembles of the genre), sugudu (native Naxi string instrument)

3. Erhuang (another Naxi string instrument).

Melodies are often slow or soft, using scales of 5 to 7 tones and played in 24 qupai fixed melody patterns. The genre often presents a mood of sadness, nostalgia, life and death.

In keeping with the genre's tradition, it was mainly performed for funeral ceremonies of the Naxi ethnic group. Naxi funerals often last for 3 days, giving time to performers to play with different melodies. Nowadays it can be also performed on other types of non-funeral ceremonies as well.

Baroque

The era of the Baroque period of classical music took place from about 1600-1750 CE. In this time, most works possessed certain major characteristics. First is a constant rhythmic flow, or a steady motion all throughout. Next, each piece or movement generally focuses on a single melodic idea which is thoroughly developed. Lastly, almost all Baroque works included some form of counterpoint - two or more musical lines that go their separate ways, yet intersect and interact at certain spots. Some notable composers of this period were Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Antonio Vivaldi and Claudio Monteverdi.

Brazilian Classical

Classical Music was introduced in Brazil by European monks in the 16th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries it flourished in Minas Gerais an important school of classical Brazilian born composers, such as José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Antonio dos Santos Cunha or José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita. These composers followed the current trends of Western Classical Music with no significant locals variations. In the early 19th century Opera was the most popular style in Brazil, the most important composer was Antônio Carlos Gomes, his composition "Joana de Flandres" added in 1863 a Brazilian 'flavour' to the current European trends. In 1869 Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha blended in "Sertaneja" the Romanticism style with Brazilian popular music, but the nationalistic movement that developed classical music based on popular and folkloric Brazilian music wasn't established until the late 19th century, with composers such as Alberto Nepomuceno, Francisco Ernani Braga and Ernesto Nazareth (the 'father' of the 'new popular movement'), who introduced styles such as Maxixe and Choro into classical music.

Heitor Villa-Lobos is considered the most important Brazilian composer. His works Bachianas brasileiras and the choros series revolutionized classical music with the blend of Modern Classical and Brazilian folk and popular music. The 'Modern Art Week' held in 1922 was also very influential; it stated that Brazilian people should avoid European art imitations and should reflect in their music the Brazilian soul and traditions.

In opposition to nationalism, the 'Música Viva' group, formed in 1945 by Edino Krieger and Claudio Santoro, amongst others, sought to work in an universal language, using dodecaphonic, atonalism and serial techniques. Whereas the Camargo Guarnieri 'school' approached Brazilian Music composition from an historical point of view. Another important movement was 'Música Nova', created in 1963, which followed a non-nationalistic experimental style. In the 1970s the interest in neo-traditional Brazilian music flourished again, although in Brazilian classical music the trends change constantly and usually every period of nationalism is followed by more 'universal' or avant-garde approaches.

Burmese Classical

(also known as Myanmar Classical)

Traditional court music of Burma (a.k.a Myanmar), developed from Southeast Asian, Hindu and Chinese influences. It is usually based on a pentatonic scale similar to the Chinese one, devoid of harmony and puts high emphasis on melody. An ancient collection of songs called Mahagita is a root and a source of constant inspiration of Burmese Classical music.

Burmese Classical Music can be roughly divided into four categories:

• Solo Saung harp music, in modern times also adaptations of Saung harp repertoire for a piano tuned according to Burmese scale

• Sidaw music: a set of drums accompanied by a large oboe

• Chamber music: female singer accompanied by a harp, flute and zither

• Hsaing Waing ensemble: an orchestra composed of gong-chimes, drums and an oboe, with a rare addition of flute, harp, zither or violin.

Byzantine Music

Music from Byzantine era. This era (330 AD - 1453 AD) largely overlaps with the Medieval era, but Byzantine Music is not the same as Medieval Classical Music due to the pronounced Eastern influences.

Byzantine Chant

(also known as Chant of Constantinople)

Byzantine chant is the liturgical chant of Christian churches following the Orthodox rite. It is highly likely derived mostly from Hebraic (Church of Jerusalem) and early Syrian Christian (Church of Antioch) liturgical chants.

Byzantine chant has three "genera": the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic. It is also built on a modal system of octoechos (eight tones).

In the Orthodox Church today, Byzantine chant is still used as the liturgical music form of the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, and Albania.

Caklempong

(also known as Talempong, Celempung)

A form of Southeast Asian gong-chime ensemble found on Sumatra, Malay peninsula and parts of Borneo, closely related to but distinct from Gamelan ensemble of Java and Bali. The genre functions under dozens of names (each ethnic group using it has its own name for it), and several variations, though all of them can easily be recognized as not being a "proper" gamelan.

Sumatran gong-chime ensemble is smaller that Gamelan and the music itself less developed in terms of composition. That however makes it less formal thus giving instrumentalists more space for artistic expression.

Cantonese Opera

(also known as Jyut6 kek6, daai6 hei3)

Cantonese opera describes the smaller category of Chinese Opera that are sung in Cantonese. It has 5 distinct features that make it different from most forms of Chinese opera:

1) 程式性 (Chihng sik sin): formulaic, formalised.

2) 虛擬性 (Heui yih sing): abstraction of reality, distancing from reality.

3) 鮮明性 (Sin mihng sing): clear-cut, distinct, unambiguous, well-defined.

4) 綜合藝術形式 (Jung hahp ngaih seuht yihngsik): a composite or synthetic art form.

5) 四功五法 (Sei gung ngh faat): the four skills and the five methods.

Cantonese Opera is particularly popular in Guangzhou, Guangdong because in 1759, the city (then called Canton) was declared to be the only port allowed to handle China's trade with foreign countries. This brought many businessmen who sought opportunity in this land of trade, which brought along traditional Chinese operatic troupes from their native areas. Because it also began to gain popularity in Hong Kong, which is another city on the conveniently along the Pearl River and has lots of Western culture, Cantonese opera started to become the more experimental of Chinese opera in its adaptation of Western elements throughout the 1920s through the 1940s.

Carnatic Classical

(also known as Karnatik Music, Karnatak Music, Karṇāṭaka Sangīta/Sangītam)

The term "Carnatic" refers to the Classical Music and dance culture shared by the Dravidian cultures in South India separate from regional folk genres. It's a thoroughly pan-South tradition and the similarity between the term "Carnatic" and the name of the Kannadiga state "Karnataka" is purely coincidental. Because of the similarity of the words "Karnatak"/"Karnatik" and "Karnataka", the conspicuously non-Dravidian spelling "Carnatic" with a "c" has been standardized to avoid confusion and reflect the English lingua franca of the region. Carnatic Classical Music was originally part of a pan-Indic classical tradition from Sama Veda that split into Carnatic Classical Music and Hindustani Classical Music around the 12th century during the Islamic invasions when Islamic music was integrated with the Sanskritic cultures of North India. Carnatic culture resisted the Islamic Modal Music influence and retains a stronger component of Hinduism as a result.

As with Hindustani Classical Music, vocal music is prominent and most of the instrumental music is distinctively microtonal as a derivation of vocal music. The primary instruments of Carnatic music are vina, violin, citravina, flute and mridangam. Mridangam is frequently augmented by kanjira (frame drum), ghatam (clay pot) and morsing (mouth harp). A drone instrument is usually used as a pitch reference; the ideal is tambura, but electronic devices and sruti boxes are commonly used, and bagpipes were used in previous eras. In exceptional cases, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet, synthesizer, jalatarangam (porcelain bowls filled with water), acoustic guitar and electric guitar have been adapted to the unique requirements of Carnatic Classical Music. Unlike some subgenres of Hindustani Classical Music where harmonium is a staple, in Carnatic Classical Music it's a relatively rare instrument that was widely rejected because of its European non-microtonal notes. In the distinctive Nadaswaram subgenre of Carnatic Classical Music tailored to religious functions, the primary instruments are nadaswaram (double-reed woodwind) and thavil (barrel drum).

Most Carnatic music is either improvisation based on the melody and rhythm templates of raga and tala, similar to Hindustani Classical Music, or variations on compositions or lyrical texts by the three 18th century composers known as The Carnatic Trinity: Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri.

Chamber Music

Classical music performed by a small ensemble, usually only a few performers.

Chinese Opera

(also known as Xiqu)

Chinese opera (or xiqu) has been traditionally performed for over a millennium, evolving as a form of musical theatre with several different variations in different periods and regions of China. It developed separately to and predates the European Opera tradition.

With early roots in Chinese theatrical arts such as the court performance baixi (Han dynasty, 206 BC–220 AD) and the comic drama canjun opera (Later Zhou dynasty, 319–351), Chinese opera is generally considered to have reached its mature form by the 13th century during the Song dynasty. It was during this period that the nanxi and zaju opera forms were established. The latter was a four act poetic music drama which became most associated with the subsequent Yuan dynasty, a period that saw lyrics performed in the vernacular dialect as opposed to the strict usage of the Classical Chinese language prior to this.

In more recent times, there are several regional variations of Chinese opera that are still performed, notably Peking Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Cantonese Opera and Kunqu opera. Only the latter was developed prior to the 18th century, dominating Chinese opera from the 16th to the 18th centuries with its singing techniques dating back to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

Alongside singing, common musical backing includes a large Chinese gong, the bowed string instruments jīnghú and jing erhu, the yueqin and sanxian lutes, and traditional percussion ensembles. Together with the music, art forms such as poetry, dance, acrobatics and martial arts are commonly incorporated into operas.

Chinese Classical

The classical music of China is generally considered to date back to the development of the Gongche musical notation during the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279 AD). Earlier origins stem from and overlap with Ancient Chinese Music and the development of Yayue's basic conventions during the Western Zhou period of the Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BC). Yayue, translating as 'elegant music', was used as royal court music and represented political power. It was traditionally performed by a large orchestra split into two ensembles symbolising yin and yang. These included numerous silk and bamboo instruments with music played at a slow tempo with monophonic instrument or vocal melodies. During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907 AD), the less formal style yanyue was also popular as a form of music entertainment during banquets. Whilst yayue has mostly disappeared in modern China, it served as the basis for other East Asian Classical Music forms, most notably Japanese Gagaku, Korean Aak and Vietnamese nhã nhạc.

From the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) to the end of the Qing dynasty (1912) official scholars of Chinese culture known as shì dàfū (literati) were appointed by the court. Among their practices and past-times were the performance of guqin music (a seven-string zither traditionally known as simply the qin), usually compositions written by themselves or by previous literati. Aside from the guqin, other instruments traditionally used in Chinese classical music include the guzheng (zither), pipa, dizi (flute) and sheng (reed).

Chinese Opera (or xiqu) developed fully by the 13th century during the Song dynasty and remains a popular art form combining drama and musical theatre. Several regional variants exist which differ in instrumentation, melody and/or theme, notably Peking Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Cantonese Opera and Kunqu.

From the 20th century traditional Chinese classical music has had to compete with the popularity of Western Classical Music in China, as well as falling out of favour during the Chinese revolution (late 1940s) due to its lack of modernity (though has experienced a revival of interest since).

Choral

Choir-sung classical works covering periods from medieval music (an early form being Gregorian Chant) up to present day.

Cinematic Classical

This genre describes the style of orchestral compositions generally associated with soundtracks to modern high-budget films, games, and other non-live media. It has its roots in Western Classical Music, particularly late Romanticism, taking inspiration from the dramatism, large orchestra, use of leitmotif, and emotiveness of the genre. There is also a notable influence from Modern Classical, with its common focus on atmosphere and texture over melody. Additionally, non-classical sources such as Traditional Folk Music, Jazz and modern popular music are often incorporated into the orchestral setting, generally to set the location, themes or time period of the accompanying media. The style is played with a large symphonic orchestra, with additional modern and non-Western instruments included if required by the composer. Whilst this form of music is associated strongly with soundtracks, not every example of it is a soundtrack, and not every orchestral soundtrack fits this style.

The development of synchronised sound allowed full symphony orchestras to accompany films, not bound by the size of a cinema. Most films of the period of the 1930s and 1940s were scored with a combination of Easy Listening and operatic romanticism, particularly influenced by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Some early examples exist of scores beginning to fuse romantic and modern classical for dramatic effect however, such as Wolfgang Zeller's score to the 1932 horror film Vampyr.

The 1950s was the decade where mainstream soundtracks begun to move away from pure romanticism, into the more modern and eclectic approach described by this grouping. In this period, composers such as Miklós Rózsa begun using musicological research to inform their works to create soundtracks that would fit better with a film's setting. Composers who studied with or were influenced by avant-garde modern classical composers also began to emerge. They used new techniques like atonality, unresolved dissonance and even Serialism in their works, though not to the extent that the soundtrack would be inaccessible to the general public. Particularly influential from this time were Bernard Herrmann's works for filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, including Vertigo and Psycho.

This approach to orchestral music became the standard. For example, Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo [The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly] fuses melodic symphonic orchestral sections with tense, dissonant modernism and non-classical sources that indicate location such as Mexican Folk Music and Cowboy music, creating the widely known sound of Spaghetti Western. John Williams fused the sweeping late period romanticism of 'Golden Age' Hollywood scores with melodic symphonic bombast, sections of 20th century atonality and dissonant cluster chords. The incorporation of some Electronic elements into the orchestral setting became common as synthesizers and digital technology became more widely accessible, for example Wendy Carlos's soundtrack to TRON. Minimalism was another important later influence on the style, with Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to Inception very clearly showing the incorporation of the genre in its repetitive nature. Note, however, that not all modern orchestral soundtracks fit this style, such as the score to The Shining which is more purely derived from avant-garde modern classical, and the score to The Age of Innocence which returns to classical romanticism to fit its setting.

Whilst mostly associated with films, the style can be found in other media. In television, the style is used mostly in cinematic, fictional series, with examples including Star Trek, Game of Thrones and Lost. Video games were initially bound by their technical limitations, though attempts were made to recreate the style in certain adventure games such as I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Later, pre-recorded soundtracks were made possible, which allowed for orchestral soundtracks, with examples of this style being found in games such as Halo 3 and Shadow of the Colossus.

Circus March

(also known as Screamer)

A circus march, also known as a screamer, is a form of march music that are composed for use in circuses, one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the early 20th century. They are designed to stir up the audience and heighten the drama of the circus acts on display. They differ from usual marches by being a much faster tempo, shorter in length, lack dynamics, and are more complex to impress audiences. Due to these features they are considered difficult to play.

The style's heyday was between the years of 1895 and 1955, with prominent composers being Karl L. King and Fred Jewell. By far the most famous circus march is a version of Julius Fučík's piece, Entrance of the Gladiators, originally composed as a standard military march, but rearranged as a circus march in 1901, retitled as "Thunder and Blazes". This piece was played during the entrance of clown acts, and the tune is now inseparably linked to the circus and clowns.

Classical Marches

A march is a type of music with a strong and regular rhythm originally written to walk in step easier or to back events like parades or marches. Classical composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven often incorporated the same patterns into their music.

Classical Period

Classical period is a term referring to the phase in Western Classical Music history between the fall of Baroque Music and rise of Romanticism, occurring from roughly 1750 to 1820.

Classical Waltz

The waltz is a type of music and a dance of the same name that appeared in the first half of the 18th century in Central Europe (Germany, Austria). It usually has a 3/4 time signature. Popular composers of classical waltzes are - among many others - Johann Strauss, Johann Strauss, Jr, Joseph Lanner and Frédéric Chopin.

Concerto

Concertos are multi-movement Classical works for orchestra and one or more soloists. Concertos for solo instruments evolved in Baroque Music during the turn of the 18th century from the Concerti grossi, which include a small group of soloists called the "soli" set against a full orchestra referred to as the "tutti". Concertos intensified this distinction of part and whole, and seek to explore the relationships between individual and collective, between one and many. This remains the situation, therefore Concertos continue to be highly popular and have held a unique position in Orchestral writing in all periods including Modern Classical.

Concertos have been written for all sorts of instruments, however Concertos for pianos, violins and cellos have been the most popular.

Dang-ak

(also known as Tangak)

Dang-ak music, or Tang music, is a sub-genre of Korean Classical Music that dates back to the Later Silla period of 668–935. Similar to Aak, dang-ak was imported from China and then modified for performance in Korean courts, unlike the native Hyang-ak music.

It is the counterpart to aak music, which was performed for and intended for regal performances. Dang-ak and hyang-ak were usually performed for and by the lower classes. Accompanying dances called dangak jeongjae were performed alongside dang-ak music.

Like aak, only two surviving pieces of dang-ak music remain: Nakyangchun (literally 'Spring in Luoyang' - played at formal performances), and Boheoja (literally 'Pacing the Void' - played for the Oyangseon court dance). The former of the two was performed by Lou Harrison sometime in the early 1960s.

Danmono

Danmono is a specific form of Sōkyoku composed for koto, a thirteen-string traditional instrument. It consists of a number of movements (dan) with 104 beats on each dan, except the first. It also includes an intro of 4-8 beats (kandō). All the danmono pieces follow the same structure beginning with a crescendo and ending with a decrescendo. Most of the danmono pieces were composed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Those pieces are Godan (five dan), Rokudan (six dan), Shichidan (seven dan), Hachidan (eight dan), Kudan (nine dan), and Kumoi Kudan (nine dan in hon-kumoijoshi). Another piece that is considered part of the danmono repertoire is Midare, although it does not follow the same structure. Midare is also called Judan (ten dan) in the Ikuta ryu school, or Junidan (twelve dan) in the Yamada ryu school.

Dhrupad

An ancient style of Classical Indian vocal and instrumental music. As opposed to the more popular Khyal style, Dhrupad is more meditative and often omits the faster, more songlike gat-passage of a raga. The Dhrupad is drone-based and often played solo; if any rhythm instrument is used at all, it is the pakhavaj rather than the tabla.

Dongjing

(also known as Dongjing yinyue)

Dongjing music, also called as dongjing yinyue or donjiang is a type of Chinese Taoist ritual music from the Nakhi (Naxi) people, historically performed around Yunnan and Sichuan. The term comes from an abbreviation of the Taoist scripture Weichang Dadong Xianjing (Immortals' Book of the Great Grotto of Wenchang). Originating in medieval southwestern China for ritual activities, it was influenced by the popular religious and imperial court music of the Tang and Song dynasties. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, its primary practitioners were the Confucian-oriented dongjinghui religious associations of elite, educated members (literati) centered on worshipping Wenchang Wang, called the "God of Culture and Literature". These organizations observed a great number of Han Chinese cultural and religious customs, an influence also applied to the music in various ways. Throughout the centuries, performance of dongjing music later expanded into a secular form, in which musicians used it for enjoyment and relaxation activities rather than religious motives. Although dongjing (along with other forms of Mainland Chinese music) ceased to exist for a short time in the emergent communist China, it began to reappear in 1980s Yunnan through preservation projects like The Dayan Ancient Music Association, simultaneously with another Naxi-originated genre, Baisha Xiyue.

Dongjing music is characterized by its diverse selection of traditional Chinese and regional instruments, usage of the gongche notation system, and heterophonic melodies (which are also in a similar vein to Jiangnan Sizhu). Instruments range from the common pipa, guzheng, sanxian and guqin to scarcer ones like the Chinese wooden fish block and the sugudu. Dongjing is distinguishable for its chanting vocals, which often are based around readings of Taoist scriptures (which is the reason why it's sometimes called as "cave music" in Chinese). Lyrics commonly take form in poems and utilize techniques such as quatrains, four-character phrases, and variations between long and short sentences. The singer(s) might perform with the full band or through quieter breaks with the sole sound of the wooden fish block. Dongjing is sometimes considered more open to performance in comparison to the baisha xiyue style of Naxi music, which is traditionally meant to be played in funereal occasions.

East Asian Classical

A genre that covers all the forms of pan-East Asian Classical Music sharing origins in Chinese Classical Music. (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc.)

Expressionism

Expressionism is the term generally used to describe music composed between the abandonment of tonality at the conclusion of the Romantic period and Arnold Schoenberg's creation of twelve-tone composition. The genre is associated with the composers of the Second Viennese School: Schoenberg and his students, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Futurism

The futurist movement began in the early 20th century and extended across many art forms. Its starting point in music is considered to be Manifesto of Futurism written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909, quickly followed by several manifestos written by Francesco Balilla Pratella, beginning in 1910. Futurism is largely a product of Italian and Russian composers.

Futurism can be characterized by a radical and militant attitude, rejection of Western Classical Music forms and traditional criteria of musical craft, search for non-conformity, and most importantly a fascination with machines, which futurist music often imitates or is inspired by. Painter, sculptor and self-taught musician Luigi Russolo, also with his brother Antonio, pushed this fascination to the extreme by inventing specific noise instruments called intonarumori, for which they composed several pieces. The first intonarumori concert was held in 1914 (and a similar approach to noise was exercised a few years later by Николай Фореггер [Nikolai Foregger] and his Orchestra of Noises). Russolo's developments are today seen as crucial in the evolution of Noise and Electronic music.

Other notable futurist composers include Luigi Grandi, Александр Мосолов [Alexander Mosolov], George Antheil, Арсений Авраамов [Arseni Avraamov], and Arthur Lourié, while a futurist influence can be found in some works of Сергей Прокофьев [Sergei Prokofiev], Arthur Honegger, Igor Stravinsky or Edgard Varèse.

Gagaku

Gagaku is one of the oldest forms of Japanese Classical Music, originally integrated into Japanese culture from the imperial court music of China (Yayue) and Korea, and gaining popularity by the 9th century (the Heian period).

It uses the pentatonic Yo scale and adopts an elegant sound that is typically solemn, slow-paced and resonant. Initially played with the gakuso and gakubiwa, Gagaku is usually performed by a medium-sized ensemble consisting of wind, string and percussion instruments, with the piercing flute sound of the hichiriki or the ryuteki playing the primary melody. These ensembles often provide a highly visual experience as well as aural, employing vibrant costumes, displays and dances.

Gagok

(also known as Kagok)

Gagok refers to vocal songs derived from Korean Classical Music backed by a small orchestra of Jeong-ak ("aristocratic or proper music"). Its origins can be traced back to traditional sung poetry (sijo) enjoyed by aristocracy during the Goryeo Dynasty (10th to 14th century). The art of gagok saw many refinements throughout time, particularly its compositional structure which reached its final form late into the Joseon Dynasty (14th to 20th century). Its current form is referred to as sakdaeyeop, while other, rhythmically slower forms like mandaeyeop and jungdaeyeop have since died out. Nowadays it is considered one of the most sophisticated and respected forms of Korean court music (sacralized as an important Korean cultural property in the 1960s) and was even recognized as one of the major art forms of intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO organization in 2010.

Gagok is characterized by female and male vocalists (performing either in a solo or duet form) stretching out very long vowels while singing. This results in songs containing very few syllables and typically ranging within only two octaves. Those songs are structurally split into multiple chapters, combining several instrumental and vocal parts. The chamber ensemble usually consists of the gayageum or geomungo (multiple stringed zithers), either the daegeum or the sogeum (large or small bamboo flutes respectively), the haegeum (two-stringed zithers), the piri (bamboo oboe) and a janggu (a two-sided drum). There are approximatively 41 known compositions of gagok, which collectively form a repertoire called Mannyon changhwanjigok or "Song of a Long Lived Joy" due to their known calming and meditative nature. Those songs can be performed by making use of different modes to convey different emotions: pyeongjo or peaceful mode, ujo or energetic mode and gyemyeonjo or melancholic mode. Out of the 41 songs, 15 are meant to be performed by female vocalists (yeochang) and 26 by male ones (namchang).

Gamelan

Gamelan is a style of traditional music originated in the island of Java in Indonesia and representing part of a larger Southeast Asian "gong-chime culture". Strictly speaking, the term "Gamelan" refers to ensemble of instruments—typically consisting of metallophones and gongs, sometimes augmented with drums, flutes and human voices—but the term is often used to describe the music played by those ensembles as well.

Over time gamelan music evolved into many variations, ranging from exceptionally slow-paced and conservative "royal court" styles to fast-paced and entertainment-oriented "village dance" styles. However, almost all kinds of traditional gamelan performance have three distinct features:

1. They are very, sometimes even extremely long from Western perception (up to six hours of continuous playing without distinguishable breaks between the pieces)

2. The composition serves only as a basis for 'controlled improvisation', this usually taking form of slight variations in ornamentations

3. In a traditional setting, gamelan performance is almost never given for the sake of music in itself. It almost always serves as an accompaniment for a ritual / dance performance / drama / shadow puppet performance.

Gamelan angklung

Gamelan angklung is a form of Balinese Gamelan that takes its name from the angklung, an instrument made of bamboo tubes that are set into a frame and tuned into octaves. Each angklung can only play a single note, meaning the players form ensembles with various angklungs set to different notes. Although the name was taken from the angklung instrument, it doesn't appear very frequently in modern gamelan angklung ensembles. The instrumentation now usually comprises of metallophones, gongs, drums, and flutes. The genre is similar to Gamelan gong kebyar, with some differences like the use of a four tone scale.

Gamelan beleganjur

Gamelan beleganjur is a type of Balinese Gamelan music. Its name meaning "gamelan of the walking warrior" originates from the fact that it used to be played as marching music during military ceremonies (comparable in concept to Western Classical Marches), and sometimes during armed conflicts as a way of spiritual protection for warriors as well as distracting/intimidating the enemies. While nowadays the military association is mostly lost, gamelan beleganjur is still seen as music meant for protection and is commonly performed during Hindu-Balinese ceremonies, ritual processions, funerals (in order for the spirit of the deceased to leave in peace during rites to cremetion towers) and occasionally for temple ceremonies like the odalan (protecting the offerings meant for the Hindu deities).

Due to its past usage as marching and battleground music, this style of gamelan is characterised for its portability, therefore a lesser number of instruments. As such gamelan beleganjur ensembles are typically the smallest out of any Balinese gamelan sort. The traditional form of the ensemble called gamelan beleganjur bebatelan, although nowadays rarely performed, is composed out of one gong ageng (main playing gong), one bendé (small hanging gong played with a wooden hammer), four pairs of crash cymbals (or ceng-cengs which are played in staccato rhythms throughout a composition), one kempli (a small gong playing a steady beat to keep the rest of the player in rhythm) and two differently toned drums (or kedang which are the leading instruments). A further development of the style called gamelan belenganjur peponggangan is named after the addition of the ponggang (a pair of kettle gongs tuned differently as well, playing hypnotic interlocking patterns), as well as a kempur (a higher pitched kettle gong), a kajar/kempluk (which has the same role as the kempli, but higher pitched) and an additional smaller gong ageng. The most modern take and commonly performed type, called gamelan beleganjur bebonangan, heavily draws from the past pepongangan form while also adding additional crash cymbals (up to seven or eight pairs) and the bonang or reyongs which are four small kettle gongs attached to a horizontal pole wich are meant to induce the listener into a state of trance and make way for the crash cymbals to further the job. Gamelan beleganjur is overall also noted for its complete lack of metallophones which are commonly found in other gamelan sorts.

The music is described as loud, chaotic, highly percussive and with heavy tempo changes. As processions tend to go on for miles, traditional beleganjur compositions are long in length and played in a way that they start off very frantically to scare off evil spirits, before dropping in tempo as to maintain the proctective force around the marchers. The piece then climaxes again in energy when the marching ensemble comes to spiritually dangerous places like crossroads (said to be lurked by dark spirits) or when the composition is ending. The playing is marked by the gilak form, which is a pattern of eight beats provided by the syncopated gongs in ascending tone, over which the cymbals and drums play complex, interlocking patterns.

Since the mid-1980s, contests (called lomba beleganjur) are regularly hold in different cities accross the Bali island where different regions compete against eachother. They are meant to revive the wild and militaristic nature of gamelan beleganjur away from the religious and functional context. Perfomances are therefore highly dynamic where participants are dressed in bright and flashy clothings. Those contests in turn led to the birth of a new type of gamelan beleganjur called kreasi beleganjur where the playing is even more complex and virtuosic, with rhythms close to those of Gamelan gong kebyar.

Gamelan degung

Gamelan degung is a Sundanese Gamelan style. Its development took place in the courts of the Bupati (Indonesian administrative officials) under the Dutch rule in the 19th century. The genre used to be played exclusively for royal ceremonies, performed by a small orchestra of bronze gongs and metallophones. Compositions were required to be rather simple and restrained. This older variant of gamelan degung, which is rarely performed nowadays, is sometimes referred to as degung klasik. In preparation for a particular theater show in 1921 (which served as a display of Sundanese pride), the degung format got enlarged to include drums and an altered suling (a bamboo flute commonly found in theater music, but with a higher pitch when played in degung). This ensemble format remained the norm afterward as it allowed for a greater range of expression. It also gave birth to the lagu klasik compositions, which are still the most widely performed ones for degung ensembles.

Following the Indonesian independence in 1945, degung was adopted by non-aristocratic people, as opposed to its previous usage in courts. Retaining a "high class" image, it is nowadays performed mostly for public events worthy of its elegance like hotel receptions, weddings, and elections. In the 1960s, further developments fueled by radios like Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) included the addition of female vocalists or choral singing, similar to those found in Tembang cianjuran, and a more simplified structure. This variant is referred to as degung kawish and stands in contrast to the classic style which forbids the inclusion of vocals. The boom of the cassette industry in the mid-to-late 1980s also allowed for gamelan degung to explode in popularity, to the point of seeing cassettes like Degung Instrumental: "Sangkala" gaining national attention in Indonesia.

A typical modern gamelan degung ensemble includes kendengs (one large drum or kendeng agaung accompanied by two smaller drums or kulanter, facing in different directions), bonangs (rows of kettle gongs), the peking and the cémprés/panerus (bronze metallophones, the former being higher pitched), the jengglong (multiple gongs suspended on the same frame), the goong (a large suspended gong) and the aforementioned suling. In degung kawish other added instruments might include a kempul (a small suspended gong), additional metallophones like the gambang and the saron, the kacapi siter (a small zither with 20 steel strings) and very rarely a rebab (a bowed string instument) replacing the suling.

Gamelan degung was traditionally played exclusively by men, but it is now performed by mostly female ensembles with the exceptions of the suling and the drums which are still played by men. The tuning is done in the five-tone pélog degung scale, which is derived from the older seven-tone pelog scale of Gamelan Jawa genres and is considered a uniquely Sundanese development.

Gamelan gender wayang

Gamelan gender wayang is a Balinese variant of Gamelan. As its origins are thought to be as far back as the 10th century, it is one of the most ancient forms of gamelan on the island. The genre is named after the wayang, a popular type of shadow puppet theatre, as it was mainly played during those types of performances (although nowadays it can also be replaced by more typical gamelan ensembles). Other usages of the style include weddings, coming-of-age tooth filing rituals and cremation ceremonies due to the music having a sacred Hindu-Balinese religious association, but can also be performed for casual entertainment like during art festivals. As such, despite being an ancient type of music it has still remained a popular style across the Balinese island to this day.

Format-wise, a gamelan gender wayang group usually consists of either two or four players, making it the smallest amount of players needed for a gamelan performance. The instruments consist of two/four metallophones (gender) that are made out of ten bronze keys with suspended bamboo tube resonators connected to them. These keys on each instrument span two octaves of the five-tone or pentatonic scale called slendro. One (in a duo of players) or two (in a quartet) instruments span the low to mid range of octaves (and are called pemade), and the other one/two instruments span the mid to high range of octaves (and are called kantilan). In a quartet, one of each two categories is further made higher in pitch (called pengisep) or lower (called pengumbang) in order to have more pronounced "beats" when they're played together. During ceremonial performances (or upacara) though, all the metallophones tend to be in the lower pitched pemade variant and the higher ones are not present in order to keep a more formal or alus mood going on. A more advanced form of this gamelan style called gamelan gender wayang batel has the group including other instruments like gongs, drums and bamboo flutes.

During wayang performances a dalang would complete the group too, which acts as both the puppetmaster and the storyteller who voices all the characters. These shadow stories are for the most part about Hindu mythology, like the epic of the war-themed Mahabharata which originated from India and said to be the longest poem ever written. The dalang also acts as a conductor for the group during those performances. This is done by using a large wooden box which is hit with a knocker placed between toes to give the signal to the players when to put musical emphasis on sequences or provide sound effects. Both the dalang and the group are placed behind a screen while the shadows of flat leather puppets are casted onto it, lightened by an oil lamp.

The keys of each instrument are played by being stuck with two mallets called panggul which in this style have disc-shaped ends and placed in hand in a very specific way. Depending on the intensity of the mallet hits the duration of the note can differ (harder hits create longer notes). This and the pitch itself of the instrument have an influence on the length of intervals between notes (a higher pitch means shorter intervals). It is thus important to dampen long notes by placing fingers or the side of the palm on the keys before different notes bleed into eachother and ruin the melodic structure of a composition. On an instrument, the higher side of an octave provide the main melody line (which is made full by interlocking patterns called kotekan which is an interplay between the higher-pitched instruments' parts called polos and the lower-pitched's called sangsih, adding up to a rhythmic texture), while the lower side provide a rhythmic pattern instead. Although up to the performers, that last factor can be switched in placement to keep things interesting or to better convey a certain mood during a particular puppet show scene.

Gamelan gender wayang's sound is described as soft, calm and meditative (in this state described as ngisep), but can increase in intensity and dynamics during wayang's scenes of action (in this state described as ngumbang). The sound also has a shimmering quality thanks to the playing of the two slightly differently tuned instruments in unison which is seen as the ideal way of playing. Due to the lack of an ensemble out of many musicians, an even bigger focus can be set on the interlocking patterns in comparison to what's typically done in gamelan. Compared to other gamelan variants like the popular Gamelan gong kebyar, gamelan gender wayang lacks tempo-keeping instruments and is therefore metrically more free in nature.

Due to so many factors that can vary during playing, gamelan gender wayang is widely described as a very complex style that can take years to fully master.

The genre used to be open to newly composed pieces, but nowadays is rather limited to a fixed repertoire of traditional compositions. On the other hand, those compisitions are consistently reworked and given new twists when it comes to structure, as variation and semi-improvisation still play a major role in the way of performing pieces as long as that piece's identity is preserved (pokok). Some aspects that might differ between interpretations include better harmonization between the players or the opposite, a more pronounced usage of the kotekan patterns. The starter repertoire can also differ from region to region.

Gamelan gong gede

Gamelan gong gede is a ceremonial type of Gamelan music from Bali. This genre was originally associated with music played in royal courts with texts found attesting its existence since the 16th century. After the Dutch colonization of the island which ended the court society in the late 19th century, gamelan gong gede was relegated to temple practices which were widespread over the whole island. Nowadays the style is mostly recluded as an occasional traditional practice done by select few communities located in the highlands of the Bali island (mostly the Bangli destrict), widely replaced by the looser Gamelan gong kebyar in other regions around the 1920s and 1930s.

Gamelan gong gede is mostly performed at temple festivals, religious ceremonies and other special events, usually meant for accompanying ritual dancers. As such, gong gede performances are always done in a highly religious context. The instruments are made sacred beforehand with holy water and offerings in order for the music to be able to reach Hindu deities (the sounds produced said to be "upakara munyi-munyian" or "musical offerings").

The words "gong gede" mean "large gongs" which give away the fact that the gongs used in this particular genre are in fact larger in comparison to other gamelan styles like the popular gong kebyar ones. Ensembles are large as well (described as "palace-sized"), usually including up to 40 musicians. They're in fact the biggest out of any Balinese gamelan sort. Other important instruments include up to 24 single-octave metallophones arranged in rows based on increasing octaves. Just like in Gamelan semar pegulingan, a row of kettle gongs called trompong is present in the gong gede style where a main soloist creates a melody line which the whole ensemble follows. In total there are three sets of 12 kettle gongs with four being of the largest variant, the jegogan, which provide bass tones. All four are in the same octave, although in different sized cases to keep the increasing aesthetic coherent (which is what creates the frequent misconception that they're of different octaves). Percussion instruments like double-headed drums and crash cymbals are placed upfront in the ensemble.

This style of gamelan aims for a simpler and more melodic approach with clearer and more stable progressions compared to other Balinese orchestras and their dynamic and lively sound. Another defining feature would be the convergence of playing between two types of single-octave metallophones: gangsa gantung ("suspended keys" due to the highly vibrating bamboo resonators) and gangsa jongkok ("resting keys" due to a singular resonator in the body of the instrument). These two types with opposite timbres are played in unison and in long sustained notes to create basic melodies (called pokok) throughout an unchanging rhythm. This blending of timbres called kekenyongan is also often immitated by other gamelan styles (like gong kebyar and semar pegulingan) in a religious context, but isn't a feature as strictly taken as it is in gong gede. Similarly the repertoire of compositions commonly associated with gong gede, lelambatan, is fairly well-known and frequently covered by non-gong gede orchestras during religious services.

Gamelan gong kebyar

Gamelan gong kebyar, or commonly shortened to as simply "kebyar", is a Balinese Gamelan variant. Compared to other gamelan sorts, kebyar is a relatively recent development. It has emerged around the early 1910s as a style created for competitions between different villages' ensembles in the Jagaraga region, with its existence being attested in December 1915 for the first time. It has grown since to be the most popular style of gamelan across the entire Balinese island, being the go-to variant performed for dance and theater performances as well as religious Hindu-Balinese ceremonies and rituals. Being a style inherently created for cultural exposure, it has also gained the most international notoriety out of all gamelan sorts and was adopted out by ensembles outside of Indonesia.

As its name "kebyar" meaning "to flare up" or "to burst" already suggests, this genre is characterized for its free compositional techniques and harsh and rapidly changing dynamics, in contrast to the more stable and fixed progressions of older gamelans. The resulting sound can thus be summarized as intense, hard hitting and clanging. This flamboyant style is described as representative of the shifting social climate on the Balinese island during the early 20th century. With the end of the kingdom culture came court and royal music instruments in the hands of the common people which were repurposed or recasted as ones for more modern and popular orchestras that played a sound that broke the conventions.

A typical gong kebyar ensemble incorporates different rows of metallophones with keys casted in bronze placed on bamboo resonators called gangsas, which are playing by being stuck with mallets. The difference between the multiple metallophone sorts lies on the fact that they are pitched differently. The variants commonly found in the kebyar style include one ugal (which carries the main melody line or pokok over which the other metallophones play complex, ornamented patterns or kotekan), two jegogan (meaning "the lowest pitched" producing deep basstones), four kantilan (the highest pitched, two males and two females which are on their own pitched differently as well) and four pemadé (which span two octaves across the keys). Added to the set is the reyong which is a row of kettle gongs meant to accompany and enrich the piercing and resonating sound of the metallophones with a more softer side. Other main instruments include the suspended gongs (offering a beat pattern for the rest of the ensemble to follow), kendhang (a pair of two differently toned drums for each two musicians), kempli (a single gong serving as metronome) and ceng-cengs or crash cymbals. Depending on the context or performance, some ensembles might choose to include additional instruments like the suling (bamboo flute), the trompong (when emulating the Gamelan gong gede style) or very rarely the rebab (a bowed string instrument).

A kebyar orchestra normally include 15 to 30 musicians, all meant to perform in unison and therefore participating into creating the full, layered and bombastic sound that characterizes the genre. Kebyar is played in a five-tone scale called pelog selisir, with the scales (pelog) themselves directly derived from the seven-tone scales of older gamelan variants like Gamelan semar pegulingan which plays as a major precursor for kebyar.

Gamelan Jawa

(also known as Javanese Gamelan)

Gamelan Jawa, or Javanese Gamelan (as it is known outside Indonesia) is a broad classification grouping together various Gamelan music genres native to Javanese culture. As it is a broad category it is hard to make generalizations about its common features. However, it can be said that what typically differentiates Gamelan Jawa from its Balinese and Sundanese counterparts is its unusually slow, "meditative" rhythm, greater variety of non-percussive timbres (sulings, rebabs, celempung, singers) as well as an emphasis on Gong Ageng, thought to be the "spiritual leader" of the ensemble.

Gamelan jegog

(also known as Gamelan djegog)

Gamelan jegog is a form of Gamelan music originating from the island of Bali, the Western region of Jembrana more precisely. This gamelan variant is characterized for being played entirely on marimba-like instruments made from bamboo which widely differ in size. Due to the cultural importance given to competition in Jembrana, gamelan jegog is mostly performed during special contests called jegog mebarung where two or several orchestras from different villages face each other at making the most booming sound and showcase the most impressive playing, with the public playing the role of the judge. It is also played during various social events like weddings and children's birthdays as well as dance performances and even the annual Makepung buffalo races in Negara, but never during ceremonial ones. As such this gamelan sort has uniquely no religious associations whatsoever and is instead performed for pure entertainment purposes.

The typical gamelan jegog instrument is composed out of eight keys of half bamboo tubes, suspended above a resonator box and are played by being struck with mallets (called pangguls) in a similar way to a xylophone. The genre's name comes from the jegog which is a very low-pitched instrument that can be as large as three meters in length and is the largest out of any gamelan instrument. In fact, it is so large that it needs at least two musicians sitting on it to be played properly, each holding only one mallet due to their heaviness. A jegog ensemble usually consists out of three barangan (placed in front, playing the main melody line), three kancil/kantilan and three suir (the two sorts playing interlocking patterns, the latter an octave higher), two undir and two celuluk/kuntung (the two sorts being played by making different notes between the two ends, the latter instrument one octave higher) and one jegog (which creates the genre's signature heavy bass tones). Unlike many other gamelan sorts, jegog is traditionally played without any drum, metallophones or even gongs. Although drums, the suling (bamboo flute) or cymbals might make an occasional appearance for certain dance performances.

The resulting music is typically defined as being powerful, fast and incredibly loud with a pulsating and resonating sound said to be heard kilometers around. The wooden quality to the sound created by the bamboo is particularly valued in this genre. When it comes to form, gamelan jegog follows the four-tone scale which is called pelog empat nada, having pitches derived from those found in the pelog seven-tone one (going 2-3-5-7) from the court music gamelan (Gamelan semar pegulingan). A typical jegog presentation has a fairly fixed format, especially during the contests. Usually starting off with the opening gending (composition) called tabuh tagek (meant as a warm up and to test out the quality of the instruments as well as blessing them for a good performance), then proceeding to instrumental songs and dance performances (accompanying the music) where the players push to their limits in terms of energy, and finally the closing piece called teruntungan penyuwud usually coming when the performers have reached the point of exhaustion.

Gamelan jegog was created in the early 1910s, usually credited to a woodcutter called Kiyang Geliduh from the Sebual village. The style was made possible thanks in part to the abundance of bamboo plants in the Jembrana area. It has since grown to a very popular genre in that region, with each village possessing their own jegog groups. Since its inception, gamelan jegog knew three great periods in its history: the Genjor period (1912-1945, when the jegog playing was simpler and more stripped back), the Suprig period (1945-1965, when the orchestral performances were accompanied by a martial art dance called pencak silat originating from the Balinese Muslim communities) and the Jayus period (1965-present day, which is when the competition aspect came around and helped revitalizing the genre as it was on the verge of disappearance in the 1970s). The style has also gained some notoriety on the rest of the Balinese island.

In the second half of the 20th century, this art form even gained some international attention as the Balinese orchestras started touring in several countries, leading in turn to some orchestras playing this style being established outside of Indonesia. In Japan in particular, the group 芸能山城組 [Geinoh Yamashirogumi] have notoriously used gamelan jegog as an inspiration for some of the sections on the movie アキラ [Akira]'s soundtrack, although updated to incorporate MIDI instruments.

Gamelan sekaten

Gamelan sekaten is a ceremonial type of Gamelan from central Java. It is exclusively played for Islamic-Javanese rituals of the Sekaten festival that takes place during the sacred week of the Mawlid or the Muslim prophet of Muhammad's birthday (which is the second week of the third month in the Javanese calendar called Mulud). During that week the different sets for different ensembles are brought from the great palaces of Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Cirebon to the yards of great mosques in their respective cities. The music is played during the whole entire week in different pavilions around the mosque except on the eve of the birthday itself. It is open for the civilians to come and enjoy the music during those sacred times. The rest of the year the sets are kept and preserved in the palaces (kratons), with two of them attested to be as old as the 16th century.

It is commonly told that style originates from the wali saga which were nine advisors of the sultan of Demak (the first Javanese Muslim sultan) which used this genre as a way to promote Islam to the Javanese population in the 16th century. The word "sekaten" even comes from the Arabic term Shahada which is one's expression of faith and fidelity towards the Muslim god Allah.

The sound of gamelan sekaten orchestras stands out compared to other Gamelan Jawa ones which are commonly seen as calm and restrained in volume. These ensembles however produce much louder sounds due to the instruments being three to four times bigger than more typical ones. The ensembles themselves are composed of bonangs (different rows of kettle gongs), sarons (bronze metallophones) and large, suspended gong agengs (producing hard hitting bass tones). The musicians perform the pitches in a seven-tone scale called pelog. The music also has to be strictly unaccompanied by vocals unlike what can commonly be found in Javanese gamelan.

Gamelan selonding

(also known as Gamelan selunding)

Gamelan selonding is an ancient sort of Balinese Gamelan music, dating back to the 10th century. It is thought that it was once to be found all over the Balinese island and even in East Java (potentionally descending from older Gamelan Jawa types). Nowadays it is mostly found in traditionalist villages of Bali Aga (the indigenous people of Bali) in the Karangasem region with only very few ensembles found in other parts of the island. This style is considered to be highly sacred as the first instrument sets are believed to be gifted directly from the gods themselves through the sea. The name even comes from the words "salon" and "ning" meaning "holy place".

Once strictly only played in a religious context and in a secretive manner (the ensemble being hidden away from the listeners), players of the Tenganan village have since desacralized the genre by making duplicate instruments which can be played in secular environments, its music allowed to be recorded and on which non-ceremonial compositions can be played. This more playful take is referred to as the "Tenganan style".

A gamelan selonding ensemble consists out of four to six musicians playing metallophones made out of iron (as opposed to most modern gamelan styles prefering bronze) in a seven-tone scale. Usually no other instruments like gongs, leading drums or flutes are found, although some villages have integrated cymbals and time-keeping drums into their own sets. Each village also boasts its own style of playing that can differ based on tonality and certain playing techniques like the decending tone technique found in the Bebandem village's style. This genre's general sound is described as enchanting and haunting with the scintillating atmosphere calling back ancient times.

Gamelan semar pegulingan

Gamelan semar pegulingan is a style of Balinese Gamelan music said to be one of the older types of it on the island. Its origins date all the way back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally, the style was played at the royal court, usually near the sleeping chambers. The phrase "semar pegulingan" roughly translates to "laying down to the Hindu God of love", originating from the fact that it was soothing music meant to be played to put the king and his lovers to sleep. Although the genre was later picked on by independent groups and is now mostly played for dance and theatrical performances.

Gamelan semar pegulingan uses ensembles that are higher pitched than those found in the more popular Gamelan gong kebyar style. It's also slower paced and much less dynamic in comparison to gamelan gong kebyar. As a result, its sound can be described as softer feeling, more delicate and ethereal. Instruments associated with the semar pegulingan style include the suling (vertical bamboo flute) and the trompong (twelve small kettle gongs placed in front of the ensemble that lead the main melody line). Gangsas (metallophones) are also smaller than the ones typically used in gong kebyar.

This style also uses the seven tone scale (in contrast to gong kebyar's five tone or pentatonic one) which in turn allows for a greater use of modes or pathet (different frameworks of scales where notes are either emphasized on or not).

Gregorian Chant

Liturgical, monophonic chant that accompanied Mass and other rituals in Western Christianity. The most common and important type of plainsong.

Heikyoku

(also known as Heike Biwa, Heike Katari)

Heikyoku is one of the oldest Japanese traditional music genres, a semi-classical bardic tradition analogous to the troubadour music of medieval Europe. The name means "Heike music" and refers to the Heike Monogatari epic, which is the sole source of lyrics in this genre. The repertoire consists of some 200 pieces, virtually all of which are mostly vocal, with a singing style strongly influenced by Shōmyō chants. The genre originated in the late 13th century among wandering (mostly blind) monks/musicians who used biwa to accompany their recitations of the epic. The patronage of the samurai class, which greatly enjoyed the heroic events and moral lessons of Heike Monogatari, resulted in professionalization of the genre with the establishment of the Todo guild and raised the social status of the performers and the genre itself. During the Edo period (1603-1868) heikyoku started to be seen as outmoded and was gradually abandoned but was an important influence on the development of Kumiuta and Jiuta. Heikyoku was traditionally performed by a single singer accompanying his/herself on a special kind of biwa called heike biwa, although since the Edo period it is usually played on other, more typical kinds of biwa or sometimes even on shamisen.

Hindustani Classical Music

(also known as North Indian Classical Music, Shāstriya Sangeet)

The North Indian traditional music (also including parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan) with roots reaching back to the 12th century CE.

Unlike the South Indian Carnatic Classical Music, Hindustani Classical Music incorporated Arabic Classical Music and Persian Classical Music influences to become one of the major hybrid musical styles of the world.

Hyang-ak

One of the most common and oldest surviving forms of Korean Court Music, Hyang-ak, literally translating to "village music", dates back to the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BC-668 AD), and is often accompanied by Korean traditional folk dances. The piri, a bamboo-made, Korean double reed instrument, is a staple of Hyang-ak music, amongst various other stringed instruments.

Impressionism

Impressionism is a movement of Western Classical Music that originated in late 19th to early 20th century France as a reaction to Romanticism. It was used to describe composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Like the Impressionist art movement, Impressionism in music took a greater focus on depicting different strokes of atmosphere and mood rather than fixed and specific concepts. Impressionism furthered the expressive use of dissonance of the Romanticism to a different level. Although the climaxes of the Romantic Period were far less emphasised, Impressionism further exploited progressions and scales that were atypical in modern western music such as pentatonic, modal and (in particular) the whole tone scale to develop ambiguous harmonies that emitted a dreamy and otherworldly sound, with dissonance more often sounding skittish and playful rather than aggressive and sinister.

Impressionism was normally composed for small chamber ensembles or piano, with the melodic registers of instruments being fully exploited. Solo instruments were usually more expressive than virtuosic using a wide array of articulation and ornamentation with orchestral parts often moving in parallel motion. The pulse was normally hazed and difficult to follow due to rhythmic parts being sparse with unpredictable time signature and tempo changes further adding to the dreamlike atmospheres.

Although by the 1920s Impressionism began to drop from popularity with the deaths of Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, the influence of Impressionism on modern music was evident. From the ambiguous folk-like melodies of Ralph Vaughan Williams, to members of the Jazz-inspired "Les Six" such as Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud and to this day Debussy's "Clair de Lune" is a worldwide renowned composition, which is often a mainstream representative of Debussy's sound.

Indeterminacy

(also known as Aleatoric Music, Chance Music)

Classical compositions leaving elements of composition, performance, or both up to chance.

Integral Serialism

(also known as Total Serialism, Pointillism, Punctualism)

Integral Serialism refers to the application of twelve-tone technique in early Serialism to as many compositional factors as possible (in an attempt to apply total serial control). The idea is primarily taken from serialist composers influenced by the serialist techniques of Anton Webern. Based on Webern's later compositions some believed, if he had continued living, that he would have continued to evolve the serial technique to accommodate other facets of composition such as duration, dynamics and pitch and a handful of composers wished to fulfill this legacy. It was also seen as a further step away from the traditional values of Western Classical Music, which serialism continued to retain in its use of tropes within dynamic and melodic phrasing that were more prominent with early serial composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. The further step to a completely integrated serial technique would be seen as a completely independent aesthetic from the earlier classical traditions.

Some of the earliest integral serial pieces were for piano. These included Olivier Messiaen's Mode de valeurs et d'intensités, Karel Goeyvaerts' Sonata für zwei Klaviere and Milton Babbitt's Three Compositions for Piano. Students of Messiaen such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen also followed suit with Structures I and Klavierstücke III.

The general sound of these integral serialist works was cold, dry and robotic when compared to earlier serialist compositions. With every type of sound given equal play it seems more abstract and disjointed as every note must be given its own equal and individual identity within the coherent structural whole. The sound and compositional method was then well suited at the dawn of Electronic music (and later Electroacoustic), where it became possible to serialise variations of sine waves in an attempt to completely serialise timbre (as attempted by Stockhausen in Studie I and Studie II) giving further confirmation to the stereotypical cold and calculated sound associated with integral serialism.

However, technical difficulties with integral serialism meant that many of the originators of the technique abandoned it not too long after adopting it. Some considered it a compositional dead-end and struggling to deal with the relatively similar sounding outcomes. Whilst others had issue with the technical and interpretative difficulties including performance relativity with regards to serialising more subjective compositional traits (e.g. dynamics). Stockhausen tried to overcome these issues with the strictly serialist composition of Gruppen that serialised statistical groups (including tempo) rather than give every note or trait a single identity, but this inevitably lead to a further deviation from integral serialism from Stockhausen and many followed his influence to a more abstract and looser application of serialist ideas that allowed more freedom and alternative interpretations rather than total compositional control.

Whilst integral serialism is rarely applied in its purest form nowadays, it has historical importance with regard to the serialist aesthetic and allowed the techniques of serialism to be applied to more abstract notions of composition as well as aiding serialism into moving into an aesthetic that is separate from traditionally European Classical notions of composition including the application of electronics and more atypical timbral soundscapes.

Japanese Classical

The classical music of Japan dates back to the 6th and 7th centuries with the integration of Buddhism and many elements of Chinese and Korean culture into Japan, including the koto and biwa, stringed instruments derived from the Chinese guzheng and pipa respectively. The development of the imperial court music Gagaku was heavily influenced by the court music of China (the ancient Yayue and banquet music engaku traditions) and Korea, and is a tradition that is still widely practiced in the 21st century, showcasing vibrant costumes, dances and the signature piercing sound of the hichiriki flute.

The ensuing centuries and periods saw the emergence of many vocal-based styles and forms of theatrical music. Examples of the former are the Buddhist Shōmyō chanting and the bardic Heikyoku tradition, whilst the latter are usually used in the dance-drama art form kabuki, including Noh, Nagauta and Jōruri.

The three instruments koto, shamisen (a 3-string lute) and shakuhachi (a flute) make up a line-up known as sankyoku. This trio, either performed together or apart form the basis for Sōkyoku and Jiuta. 宮城道雄 [Michio Miyagi], a blind koto virtuoso and soukyoku performer, was one of the most famous and celebrated 20th century Japanese classical musicians. These instruments are not exclusively performed as part of classical/court music: the shakuhachi and particularly the shamisen are also frequently used as the musical accompaniment to storytelling-focused Japanese Folk Music forms, including Min'yō, Kouta and Rōkyoku.

Jeong-ak

(also known as Chŏngak)

Jeong-ak, or proper music, is a sub-genre of Korean Classical Music that dates back to the Later Silla period of 668–935. It developed around about the same time as Dang-ak, but was more closely related to the regal music of Aak.

The most notable pieces of jeong-ak music are the Sujecheon and Yeongsan Hoesang suites, both usually performed as banquet music.

Jiuta

Jiuta is a genre of Japanese Classical Music originally created by solo performers singing and playing shamisen, but since the late 18th century increasingly often performed by sankyoku ensembles (shamisen, koto and shakuhachi or kokyu). Jiuta was created in the second part of the 17th century when blind musicians of the Todo guild in Kamigata region abandoned the increasingly outmoded biwa-accompanied Heikyoku music they used to play before in favor of creating a new, more expressive and varied musical style on shamisen, a three-stringed instrument recently introduced from the Ryukyu islands. Nagauta was originally a sub-genre of jiuta but has since developed into an independent genre. Other sub-genres of jiuta include tegotomono, a highly sophisticated chamber music style, and hauta, a lighter style incorporating many folk music elements and thus forming a point of contact between jiuta and Japanese Folk Music. The innovations of jiuta had enormous influence on the development of modern Sōkyoku music, resulting in a lot of shared repertoire and the fusion of the two genres in sankyoku ensembles. Despite this, to this day the distinction between the two genres is maintained, with compositions being considered either jiuta or soukyoku according to the instrument for which they were initially composed (koto - soukyoku, shamisen - jiuta). Unlike much of soukyoku music, jiuta compositions almost always have a vocal part.

Jōruri

Jōruri is a narrative style of Japanese Music which consists of a singing narrator (tayū) with shamisen accompaniment. The genre is representative of theatre shows, mainly bunraku (puppetry shows) and kabuki, in which Nagauta music is also used. There are several forms of jōruri, mostly named after his creator. The first was gidayūbushi created by Takemoto Gidayū, that appeared in Osaka on the 17th century. Later there would appear tokiwazubushi, kiyomotobushi, shinnaibushi and four styles already extinct, katōbushi, icchūbushi, miyazonobushi and tomimotobushi.

Kafi

(also known as Kāfī, Waee)

Traditional music common in the Sindhi, Punjabi, and Seraiki regions of Pakistan. This a classical genre of sung Sufi poetry, strongly influenced by Arabic poetry. Performances are devotional and highly emotive. Unlike standard Qawwali, however, Kafi singing utilizes a simpler arrangment and smaller ensemble size, often consisting of a single vocalist accompanied by one performer each on harmonium, tabla and dholak. Kafi can also refer to a raga within Hindustani Classical Music. Notable performers have included Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan and Abida Parveen.

Kecapi Suling

Kecapi Suling is a genre of Sundanese music that around the middle of the twentieth century developed from an earlier tradition of Tembang cianjuran, more specifically from improvised interludes played between the songs during its performance by the accompanying band.

It is played by a band consisting of one or two kecapis (zithers), one suling (flute) and occasionally a set of kendangs (drums). It is essentially Tembang cianjuran without vocalist, sharing the repertoire and playing techniques. Discarding the vocalist from the band does however result in several differences in sound - as the band without vocalist is no longer "aristocratic" it is effectively much less confined to formal music rigour, giving it more freedom for improvisation, rhythm changes and variable track lengths. Lack of vocalist also tends to result in a higher emphasis being put on flute player virtuosity.

Khyal

A style of North-Indian Classical Music, derived from a vocal form. This is the predominant style in today's Classical Hindustani Music.

Korean Classical

(also known as Korean Court Music)

Classical Music of Korea can be divided into three main branches: Aak (elegant/regal music), Dang-ak (Tang music), and Hyang-ak (lit. "native music", an indigenous form of court music based on the folk traditions of the ancient Silla kingdom). A fourth genre, Jeong-ak, developed from these other sub-genres (specifically the regal aak) and was a form of royal Chamber Music.

Through a 3rd century C.E. Chinese text, some of the earliest references to the classical music of Korea are found. It describes the nong'ak agricultural festivals, along with descriptions of the singing and dancing of the tribes of north-western Korea. Two of the styles, aak and dang-ak, were rooted in the Chinese Yayue music. These were given as gifts from China to Korea in the form of instruments, costumes, and ritual items in the early 12th century.

Kulintang

(also known as Totobuang)

Form of a Southeast Asian gong-chime ensemble found in Southern Philippines, Malaysian part Borneo, Brunei Darussalam, as well as Eastern parts of Indonesia. This kind of ensemble consists mainly of gong-chimes of various sizes, with the addition of larger gongs, various drums, at times also xylophones and non-percussion instruments. However, the emphasis is always put on gong-chimes, which play the leading part. It's based on a pentatonic sound scale and highly improvisational, in which it differs from parallel traditions of neighboring regions (Gamelan, Piphat), which are only partly improvised.

Kumiuta

Kumiuta (lit. "song cycle") is an early style of Sōkyoku, which used to be particularly popular among the samurai class in Edo period (1601-1868) Japan. During much of this period it was one of the skills that a well-educated woman from the samurai class was expected to possess. Like most music favored by the samurai (such as Noh) it is very conservative and solemn in style, with composer's expression heavily restricted by the conventions of the genre. It developed in early 17th century inspired by the earlier tradition of Heikyoku (wandering bards playing biwa and singing the Heike Monogatari epic). During the Edo period it was considered the most important and prestigious genre of soukyoku, but its popularity slowly eroded with the rise of other, more modern and structurally varied styles of soukyoku inspired by Jiuta music. The genre fell out of favor with the fall of the samurai class during the Meiji Restoration and is rarely performed nowadays.

Kumiuta is primarily a vocal genre, typically performed by a single singer playing koto or less often shamisen for accompaniment. The lyrics are usually adapted from classical poetry.

Latin Classical

Classical Music was introduced in Latin America in the 16th century by the Spanish colonization. During the Renaissance Music period, classical music in Latin America was mainly Spanish Classical Music exported to the New World. In the Baroque Music period, it started to develop its own identity with composers such as Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Francisco López Capillas, Manuel de Zumaya or Juan de Araujo. Some composers were Spanish born, but most composers were "criollos" (Latin born but with pure or mostly Spanish ancestry), and incorporated to the vihuela, villancicos, misas, Opera or motetes from Spain, dance and music patterns of Native American and African origin.

After the independence from Spain, Latin classical music was characterized in each country by nationalism and therefore it was a synthesis of the Folk and popular music of each region with the current trends of Western Classical Music. Some important composers were Agustín Barrios, Alejandro García Caturla; and later on, Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Chávez, Julián Carrillo and Silvestre Revueltas.

Lieder

(also known as Lied)

Lieder are a predominately German form of songs that developed during the Romanticism of the nineteenth century for a solo vocalist and piano accompaniment. The genre's most renowned composers were Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, who began to apply poetry by famous and amateur writers alike to music.

The usual context of Lieder reflected the Romantic Period's ideal, often being about fantasy fairy tales from local folklore, the beauty of nature and passionate feelings of love. Piano accompaniments were normally simple and almost always used basic chordal phrases retaining the harmony and tempo in the left hand with brief yet recurring ostinatos in the right. The vocal layout was usually very simple but took advantage of crescendos and word painting to punctuate and highlight certain words in the text by incorporating large interval leaps, creating a broader emotional spectrum.

There are three notable structures used in Lieder. Although twentieth century composers have experimented with new themes and forms, the three main layouts are:

1. Ballad: Normally a Romantic fairy tale with gothic elements, with the narrative taking the form of a strophic song (i.e. constant repeated verses with different words, usually with a postlude and sometimes with a contrasting section in a different key).

2. Through-Composed Songs: Music that constantly continues and does not repeat (like a continuous story or poem).

3. Song Cycles: Long sets of poetry set to music (often in strophic form, but many have looser variations of this form). Franz Schubert was initially the first person to use this set up and has gained great renown for his Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin.

By the later nineteenth century Lieder began to go through a further development, some writing Lieder in their native languages and mixing it with musical traditions from their own nationalities, but Lieder continues to come back to the musical roots that arose within the fantasy of Romantic Period writers and composers.

Madrigal

During the Renaissance Music and Baroque Music of Europe, a very popular form of secular polyphonic music was madrigals. Originating in Italy and spreading to England and Germany as well as within the Franco-Flemish music of the time period, typically the music was based around poetry and generally performed by unaccompanied vocal ensembles of two to eight persons, sometimes with instrumental introductions to the main vocal pieces or occasionally there might be an accompanying instruments, which became a change in style by the 17th century.

Mahori

(also known as Mahoree, Mohowrri)

A form of Thai and Khmer traditional orchestra combining xylophones and gong-chimes of Piphat / Pinpeat with strings of khruang sai ensemble. It is easily recognizable for the emphasis it usually puts on the vocalist. It is also more often modernized than other classical genres, resulting in ensembles that blend the classical Mahori sound with Western musical influence.

Malay Classical Music

Malay classical music refers to the music that was traditionally played in the royal courts of the several Malay kingdoms, empires and sultanates that existed throughout history. Some important examples of these include the old Langkasuka kingdom, the Malacca sultanate, and the Bruneian Empire. The modern states of Malaysia and Brunei still have a Malay monarchy to this day. Influences have been taken from the southeast Asian (eg. the Srivijaya kingdom and Ligor kingdom), southern India (the Chola Empire) and European empires (Portuguese, Dutch and British) that have ruled parts of the Malay world throughout history. There are also influences from Islamic music due to west Asian Muslim traders and settlers in the middle ages, and the resulting conversion to Islam of the majority of the people. Chinese trading and settling also left some musical influence.

Possibly the most important form of Malay classical music is the nobat ensemble. This is part of the royal regalia, and must be played to properly crown a new monarch. In fact, it can only be played at the request of royalty for very special occasions, and can only be touched by the monarch and a hereditary group of players known as orang kalur. The ensemble was created in the middle age Malacca sultanate, based off a style of Islamic classical music.

Malay forms of Gamelan also exist, the most common of which is named gamelan Melayu or gamelan terengganu. This accompanies a variety of ceremonies, theatre and court dances, such as the joget gamelan. Other styles of classical music include the mak inang dance drama, and the asyik costumed dance.

Medieval Classical

Medieval classical music refers to Western Classical Music composed during the Middle Ages (476 to 1492 AD). The predominance of Christian Liturgical Music and the invention of modern musical notation by Guido d'Arezzo are two fundamental aspects of this period.

Before the advent of feudalism (9th century), classical music from Western and Central Europe was scarce in comparison with Byzantine Music, which is thought to have flourished following the fall of Rome. From ca. 900 to 1150, Gregorian Chant was the hegemonic musical form in Europe. Notable composers of Gregorian chant and other forms of Plainsong include Hildegard von Bingen and Odo of Cluny. Between ca. 1150 and 1450, Medieval music experienced a remarkable evolution that can be divided in three main phases: Ars antiqua (old art), Ars nova (new art) and Ars subtilior (more subtle art). The development of Medieval classical music included increasingly complex rhythmic structures, the appearance of polyphonic textures, and the combination of elements from secular and sacred music. By the late 15th century, early Renaissance Music had already expanded through Europe whereas Medieval music had fallen out of fashion. During the 20th century, some Modern Classical composers such as Carl Orff revived Medieval forms with a modernist approach.

Microtonal

A movement in modern avant-garde music, Microtonal composers focus heavily on the use of microtonal intervals (i.e., pitches not found in Western music's traditional twelve-note scale). Although the use of electronic instruments often makes microtonal music easier and more precise, acoustic compositions are possible and not infrequent (Harry Partch was a pioneering acoustic microtonal artist).

Minimalism

Minimalism is a genre of music that was developed in the U.S. in the 1960s. It is generally associated with the composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, though there were several other composers who contributed to its development. It gained in popularity in the 1970s, and has been practiced by many American and European composers.

Minimalism is usually recognized for its repetitive nature and relatively static harmony, as heard in the Hindustani Classical Music-influenced, Drone-oriented music of Young and Riley. However, one key aspect of the genre's development was its use of process. One example of this is Riley's In C (1964). The piece is composed of 53 short musical fragments of varying length. A pulse is established, and performers start repeating the first fragment a number of times, then proceed to the next fragment, working this way sequentially through all 53 fragments; the decision of how many times to repeat the fragment and when to move on to the next is left to the individual performer. Steve Reich's earlier tape works, It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), were created by allowing different tape machines playing identical material to gradually slip out of synchronization (or "out of phase") with each other. Later, he adapted this technique to his instrumental works; Piano Phase (1967) employs the phasing effect by having an ensemble repeat a pattern, then requiring one performer to accelerate gradually until they are playing the pattern one beat "out of phase" with the rest of the ensemble.

Later minimalist composers, including European composers such as Arvo Pärt, Gavin Bryars, and Louis Andriessen, removed much of the emphasis on process and focused more on the other aesthetically-related elements, such as repetition and a limited harmonic language. Composers such as Pärt, Henryk Górecki, and John Taverner, frequently combined religious themes with their work, while composers such as Glass, John Adams, Michael Torke and Michael Nyman used the minimalist aesthetic as a foundation for Post-Minimalism.

Modern Classical

Beginning in the 20th century, modern classical comprises a multitude of different compositional approaches that deviate significantly from the previously-held tenets of Western Classical Music. Generally, the only aspect that various modern classical schools share is their abandonment of the traditional: the liberation of harmony from tonal centers, the employment of unconventional instrumental techniques, the reliance on non-musical sound sources, the introduction of new tuning scales, the admittance of randomness into the compositional process, and the deconstruction of musical themes and motifs into static, repetitious passages. Some aspects of Romanticism carried over into modern classical (in fact, many Romantic-era composers adopted the viewpoint of the modernists). Not every 20th-century composition is modern classical in terms of approach; attempts to hearken back to earlier conventions are present in styles like Neoclassicism.

The early decades of the 1900s saw a change from the dramatic emotion of late Romanticism to the more restrained and dissonant approach of Expressionism. The expressionists began to morph the Romantic inclination towards chromaticism into complete disregard for tonal harmony. This initial period of "free atonality" eventually grew into a formal, ordered system of Serialism, beginning with the Second Viennese School led by Arnold Schoenberg. The method of giving equal weight to each chromatic tone (known as the twelve-tone technique) was later applied to other aspects of music, such as dynamics and duration.

In Italy and the Soviet Union, radicalized political attitudes spilled over into the musical realm with the rise of Futurism in the early 1900s. The appeal of modern technology led composers to embrace the sounds of machines, either by playing machines in compositions or writing pieces imitating industrial sounds. The works of the futurists are viewed today as some of the foundations of Experimental music.

In the 1950s, the process of composition itself was challenged by the proponents of aleatoric music, or Indeterminacy. This method introduced randomness or chance into either writing or performance. The work of John Cage popularized the indeterminist paradigm. Closely related is the Stochastic Music of Iannis Xenakis and followers. Xenakis looked to mathematics and probability for inspiration, writing pieces that were informed by randomness as they were being developed, but also necessitated direct guidance from the composer.

In middle of the century, after realizing that recording technology could be exploited for purposes other than preserving performances, composers like Halim El-Dabh and Pierre Schaeffer began to use media such as magnetic tape as a means of producing new sounds, thereby developing Electroacoustic music and Musique concrète, early forms of Electronic music. While these two styles were initially associated with classical music (either by manipulating classical recordings or forging "found sounds" into a vague semblance of classical music), they have since expanded into fields outside of the academic.

The 1960s brought Minimalism into the classical world, which strove to take short musical ideas and continually repeat them, sometimes with aleatoric elements or with multiple themes overlapping and interacting in different ways. The expanding idea of the minimalist approach led to the related school of Post-Minimalism, which incorporated elements of contemporary music outside of the classical tradition.

While experimentation with tuning systems outside of the twelve tones of Western music certainly existed in previous epochs of classical music, it was during the modern era that Microtonal approaches were given serious attention. The systems used in Gamelan and other styles far beyond the reach of Western music were examined by composers and repurposed for new compositions. Synthesizers made these new tuning systems accessible to many, but acoustic compositions were not uncommon, either.

Although there are many other schools of modern classical, some modern composers do not fit neatly into any of its sub-categories; the general qualities of 20th-century music may exist in their works, but they either do not fully commit to one approach or use an idiosyncratic system of their own.

Modern classical has been used interchangeably with contemporary classical until recent decades. The divide between modern and post-modern art music is somewhat indistinct compared to literature and the visual arts; questions on whether there is an identifiable point of departure from the modern approach and at what point in time this divide occurred remain controversial. Nevertheless, the contemporary label is generally understood to apply to music in the second half of the twentieth century, especially from the 1970s onward.

Nagauta

Nagauta is a form of Japanese Classical Music used in Kabuki, a form of theatre oriented to dance-drama. The origins of Kabuki can be traced to the Tokugawa shogunate when the miko Izumi no Okuni performed a new kind of dramatic dance on the riverside of Kamo river in 1603. Kabuki quickly gained popularity among the lower class population as an all-female ensemble with a suggestive and lascivious attitude. Due to this attitude, women were banned from performing in 1629, transforming Kabuki from an all-female performance into an all-male one. Even with these changes, Kabuki didn't lose its erotic acts and the incidents were not reduced. The typical structure, make-up and characters were established during the Genroku period (the golden era of Kabuki), elements that still endure in modern Kabuki. During this time, Kabuki was repressed by the shogunate and stayed as a lower class theatre, but with the beginning of the Meiji period Kabuki re-emerged. Today Kabuki is the most important of the drama styles of Japanese culture with frequent performances on theatres and TV.

Kabuki is divided in three categories: idai-mono or historical, sewa-mono or domestic, and shosagoto or dance pieces. The sceneries present a big and complex structure, including revolving stages and trap doors. It incorporates a platform called hanamachi that communicates the scenery with the audience, from where the performers appear. Another typical characteristic of Kabuki is the keshō or make-up, using oshiroi as white make-up for the face, kumadori for exaggerating the facial lines, and masks.

The incorporation of Nagauta into Kabuki theatre is set around 1740. Nagauta music is performed by an ensemble called hayashi, which utilizes traditional Japanese instrumentation, with shamisen as the main instrument, accompanied by taiko drum, ōtsuzumi hip drum, kotsuzumi shoulder drum, and nōkan flute. On the other hand, actors vocals are shouted in a monotonous and enthusiastic way, influenced by the yōkyoku style of Noh theatre. Although the Nagauta ensemble is closely linked with Kabuki theatre, it also can be performed in buyō dances, yose performances, or common concerts and festivals.

Neoclassical

Beginning shortly after World War I as a reaction to what some composers perceived as the excesses of the Romanticism, Neoclassicism returned to the more formal and less expansive structures and forms common in the 18th century. The harmonic and melodic material, however, was decidedly modern and avoided the emotionalism and programmatic tendencies common among the Romantics in favor of purely abstract material.

A few precursor pieces of this movement traced back to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in particular some of Sergei Prokofiev's work. The most prominent composers are Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith, as well as Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten or Krzysztof Penderecki.

New Complexity

New Complexity describes a dense, difficult and rigorously academic approach to Modern Classical composition which emerged in the 1980s. The term is strongly associated with English composers Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Finnissy, whose teaching efforts at the Darmstadt Summer Courses produced the 'first wave' of New Complexity composers.

New Complexity compositions are often atonal, highly abstract and dissonant in sound, but are perhaps most well known for their use of extraordinarily complex notation, which places serious demands on the performer. A composition by Ferneyhough, for example, might apply a unique dynamic and articulation to every note, requiring a performer to precisely utilize a range of extended techniques (such as key-clicks and glottal stops) in order to perform the score accurately. This, coupled with microtonality, complex textures, highly disjunct melodic contour, layered irrational rhythms, abrupt changes in texture, and so on, has caused some critics to attack New Complexity for its 'unperformability'.

Still, New Complexity has spread beyond the Darmstadt Courses and is now an international movement, including composers such as Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, James Dillon, Mark Andre, Joël-François Durand and Jason Eckardt, among others, whose challenging works are performed by groups such as the JACK Quartet, ELISION Ensemble, Arditti String Quartet, and many others.

Noh

(also known as Nogaku, Nō)

Noh is one of the theatrical music genres from Japan, like Nagauta used in kabuki. It appeared during the Muromachi period influenced by dengaku, shirabyoshi, and Gagaku. Noh music is played by an hayashi ensemble, consisting of a fue (flute), a kotsuzumi (shoulder drum), a ōtsuzumi (hip drum), and a taiko (stick drum). In noh, rhythm has more importance than melody. The taiko leads the ensemble during its appearance, making a heavy resonating sound. When absent, the ōtsuzumi leads the ensemble producing a sharp sound, and is accompanied by kotsuzumi producing a softer sound than that of the ōtsuzumi. The fue can follow the rhythm of the drums (awase-fuki) or play independently (ashirai-fuki). Noh singing is lengthy and repetitive, using yōkyoku and kakegoe techniques.

Odissi Classical

(also known as Odissi Music, Orisi Music, Odramagadhi)

The term "odissi" refers to a style of traditional dance and classical music from the Odisha region of Eastern India. The origins of the dance date back to its origins in the medieval era of India, predating back to earlier variants such as mahari and nartaki, while the style of music originated decades after thanks to the work of the poet and composer Jayadeva around the 13th century.

The ideology of Odissi music is separated into four subclasses called Dhruvapada (first single or few lines of a raga), Chitrapada (the arrangement of words), Chitrakala (elements of art in Odissi music) and Panchal. The chhanda is the metrical section of an Odissi piece, which combines the elements of bhava (theme), kala (time) and swara (tune). Odissi music also consists of a heavy emphasis on taal (tala), which refers to the different forms of beats in a raga, and padi, the division of lyrical components performed in a specific taal. Lyrical elements are taken high priority which results in a very vocal form of Indian classical music. Instruments performed in Odissi music include the pakhawaj and tabla as the primary percussion instruments, along with the Indian tambura, sitar, bansuri, and manjira (small cymbals).

A number of specific Odissi-native ragas include Baradi, Dhanasri, Kalyana, Nata, Kamodi and Bhairavee. Odissi music had also been merged with works from Hindustani Classical Music and Carnatic Classical Music, with some performers using components of Hindustani and Carnatic ragas through an Odissi form. Some Odissi ragas share similar names with other ragas from these styles, but different in note, scale and performance definitions. In the contrary, other Odissi ragas have exactly similar characteristics to other Hindustani / Carnatic ragas, but are called with different names.

Opera

Opera as a European tradition is a widely practiced art form combining music and drama within the context of Western Classical Music, usually performed as a theatrical work on stage. The development of European opera dates back to the end of the 16th century, during the transition period between Renaissance Music and Baroque Music.

Each work is made up of the libretto (the text) and the musical score. The libretto is delivered in a speech-like 'recitative' vocal or as a melodic sung 'aria', whilst the score is typically ornate, originally written for a small string orchestra. Instruments such as harpsichord, lute and basses commonly accompany solo vocal parts, whilst woodwind, brass and percussion instruments were added to the orchestra as centuries passed.

The birthplace of opera is Italy; the first documented work is Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsis' half-lost 1598 work Dafne (with text by Ottavio Rinuccini). Early opera was usually written and performed in courts as an extravagant entertainment method to impress highly distinguished guests and to show off the court and its capabilities. Colourful costumes, elaborate stage scenery, processions and technical effects accompanied the libretto and score, with narratives stemming from classical mythology, often comparing the ruler of the court to gods or heroes from these tales.

It soon spread across the rest of Europe, with composers such as Georg Friedrich Händel, Henry Purcell, Christoph Willibald Gluck and most famously, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, writing numerous operas in the 17th and 18th centuries. French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully pioneered Tragédie en musique in the late 17th century, looking to capture the rhythm of French speech by calculating a specific number of syllables for recitatives and arias.

However, Italy remained the dominating nation for producing opera, developing Opera Seria and Opera buffa in the early 18th century. Opera seria exaggerates the drama and makes use of 'dry' recitative, voice accompanied by only baroque basso continuo parts. Opera buffa, on the other hand, is comic and uses the rapid 'patter' vocals. Both the bel canto school of singing and Opera semiseria were popular in the early-to-mid 19th century, the latter presenting a combination of sorts of seria and buffa. Operetta developed in the mid-19th century from French opéra comique as a short, light form of opera, exemplified by works by Jacques Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan.

With the rise of Romanticism in the 19th and early 20th century, two of the most celebrated opera composers of all time emerged, Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini (who pioneered the realistic verismo style). Their works have become standards in the field, including La traviata and Tosca.

On top of the huge international fame of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti (especially his performances of Nessun dorma! [None Shall Sleep] from Puccini's Turandot), mainstream crossover appeal of opera was provided by Classical Crossover (also known as 'operatic pop' or 'popera'), with singers such as Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman selling millions of albums and having successful charting singles.

The art forms Chinese Opera and Korean 'revolutionary opera' that also combine music and drama developed separately and are stylistically distinct from the European opera tradition.

Opera buffa

(also known as Comic Opera, Commedia per musica, Dramma giocoso per musica)

A Comic Opera developed at Napoli in the first half of the XVIII century. From there it spread to Roma and North Italy. Is a stylistic counterpart of Opera Seria, from which it evolved. It can be compared with the Spanish tonadilla and Zarzuela, French Opéra-comique, or German singspiel.

Opera semiseria

(also known as semi-serious Opera, Drammi eroicocomici)

Opera Semiseria is a type of opera that was popular in the early and middle 19th century. It originally described mainly the Italian equivalents of pièce de sauvetage, the French post-revolutionary "Rescue operas".

Similar to Opera Seria, it is "serious" in the way that is heavily based on the appeal to emotion, otherwise known as pathos. However, it contains some elements of comedy akin to Opera buffa, the popular rival of Opera Seria. It is most distinguished by the presence of basso buffo, and generally features a wider variety of characters and vocal types than opera buffo.

Operetta

A hybrid of light opera and musical theatre which was popular from the late 1800s thru the early-to-mid 1900s.

Oratorio

An oratorium is a composition for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, often making use of a comprehensive textbook of contemplative nature. The music is intended for performance in church or concert hall and often, but not always, carries a religious character. Notable composers of oratorios include Giacomo Carissimi, Alessandro Stradella, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Peking Opera

(also known as Beijing Opera, Jīngjù, Guójù)

Peking opera is one of the most notable forms of Chinese Opera. This type of opera combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics. The plots are generally taken from traditional stories about civil, political and military struggles. It has existed for over 200 years and amounts to nearly 1400 works.

The music of Peking opera is distinguishable from most types of Chinese opera by its instrumentation, 2 distinct types of melodies, and alternative Chinese pronunciation. The two main types of melodies in Peking opera are xipi and erhuang, which were derived from Han opera and based on the Chinese anhemitonic pentatonic scale. Xipi melodies are typically used to portray moods of positivity, and determination, while erhuang melodies are generally associated with a heavy or reflective mood.

The most prominent pieces of instrumentation in Peking opera are the jinghu and the percussion ensemble. The jinghu doubles as an outline of the vocal melody. During erhuang melodies, it is generally harder to follow the melody which makes improvisation much more common, as opposed to the during the tranquil xipi melodies. The percussion ensemble consists of a small group of traditional Chinese instruments. The player who controls the clapper, known as the ban, conducts the entire ensemble. Similar to leitmotifs in western opera, the percussion ensemble plays certain patterns that are associated with certain characters, themes, personality, and context.

Persian Classical Music

(also known as Iranian Classical Music, Musiqi-e Sonati-e Irani, Musiqi-e Assil-e Irani)

Persian classical music is the traditional art music of the Persian civilization. While it is mostly practiced in Persia (Iran), there are also closely related forms of Classical Music in territories historically being Persian domain - modern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Though Persian classical music influenced and was influenced by Arabic, Turkish, Byzantine and Indian classical musics, it is nevertheless an independent development. It has a uniquely deep mutual relation with poetry - the rhythms and melodic patterns of poems and tunes are often interconnected. Tunes are often based on poems, but it is also not uncommon to model a new poem upon the melody and rhythm of an existing tune. Sufism is another profound influence on Persian classical music.

Persian classical music is modal and monophonic, makes use of microtones and is typically performed by small ensembles. Such ensembles are usually led by a vocalist; key instruments are: long-necked lutes (tar, setar, tanbur, dotar), spike-fiddle (kamencheh), drums (tombak, daf), end-blown flute (ney) and hammered dulcimer (santur).

There are six forms of Persian classical music: four instrumental (pishdaramad, daramad, cheharmezrab, and reng) and two vocal (tasnif and avaz). A typical performance would include all those forms in a sequence, together forming a kind of "suite". While compositional basis in the form of tunes and modes does exist, Persian classical music is always at least partially improvised, the skill of a musician being judged by his ability to "dress" the tune in extensive ornamentation. Other typical traits include: melody concentrated on a relatively narrow register, fast tempo, simple rhythmic patterns, repetition of phrases at different pitches, emphasis on cadenza.

Persian classical music probably started forming in the Sassanid Era (6th century), but as it lacked musical notation at the time, there is no way of checking its relation to the modern forms. The earliest examples of Persian classical music which are directly linked to the modern performance date from the times of Safavid dynasty (16/17th century), while its codification into modern form happened during Qajar reign (19th century). Until the 1900s, Persian classical music was almost exclusively within the purview of the royal courts and small, wealthy audiences. During the 20th century, it saw more widespread performance and increased freedom of artistic expression. However, this was stopped by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, since which Persian classical music is at times condemned, at other times encouraged and most of the time just barely tolerated.

Pibroch

(also known as Piobaireachd, Ceòl Mór)

Pibroch is a semi-classical art music tradition which originated in the Scottish Highlands. It is usually assumed to have evolved from earlier traditions of bardic music in late 15th or early 16th century. Initially played mostly on clàrsach (Gaelic harp), it has later come to be played on fiddle and Great Highland bagpipes, the latter of which it is most often associated with today.

The period between the 16th and 18th century can be considered the "golden age" of Pibroch. In this time it was a standard form of court music in Scotland, enjoying considerable prestige and patronage from chieftains, who used it as a status symbol, employing composers as part of their entourage and commissioning pieces to commemorate important events. The latter fact gave rise to Pibroch's association with historical and geographical topics, which still continues today.

Pibroch compositions are distinguished from other traditional Scottish tunes by their considerable length (typically 8-12 minutes long), slow rhythm, complex ornamentation and virtuosic nature. Compositions were traditionally taught through a system of chanted vocables known as Canntaireachd. Even to this day the tradition is to a considerable degree passed down through oral transmission since it is considered virtually impossible to reproduce all the complexities required from a correct interpretation of a composition with standard musical notation.

Pibroch tunes are typically constructed as a succession of increasingly complex variations on a relatively simple theme. These variations are divided into movements and performed in (relatively) rigorously defined order and manner. The music does not follow a strict metre or tempo. Player expression is mostly achieved through minute and subtle variations in tempo and note duration.

Pinpeat

(also known as Cambodian Classical, Khmer Classical)

Pinpeat is an orchestra of wind and percussion instruments (gong-chimes and xylophones being the most important among them), having its origins in Khmer Empire era and representing part of the Southeast Asian Gong-chime Orchestras culture. Nowadays it is still played in Cambodia.

Traditionally it served as a musical background to rituals, court events and various performances (drama, dance, shadow puppets). It usually served more serious purposes than Mahori, another genre of SE Asian classical music found in Cambodia. Compositions do exist, but usually serve only as a main melodic line to be further developed and improvised around. Pinpeat is very similar to Thai Piphat, though probably more ancient.

Piphat

The most common form of Thai Classical Music, led by wind and percussion instruments, and with ensembles ranging from 6 to 10 instruments.

Plainsong

(also known as Plainchant)

Plainsong is monophonic chanting in the context of Roman Catholic and modern Anglican liturgy.

Post-Minimalism

Post-minimalism is a specific approach to Modern Classical that seeks to push Minimalism's linear composition style forward, and takes in influences from genres such as Jazz, Traditional Folk Music, and others. Minimalist composition techniques, such as additive and divisive rhythm, may appear in post-minimalist music, but such techniques are typically disguised and not in the forefront. The genre of post-minimalism seeks to expand minimalism's boundaries, with composers such as William Duckworth having created pieces that were often diatonic in nature.

Notable post-minimalist composer Kyle Gann cites numerous artists and fellow composers as comprising the first people to create the post-minimalist sound in his article, A Course in Postminimalism. In this article, Gann argues that post-minimalism is the antithesis to Serialism, citing that post-minimalist music is "gently rhythmic" and features techniques that directly contrast with serialism's core features.

Artists affiliated with and influenced by post-minimalism like Glenn Branca and John Luther Adams would go on to innovate what would eventually become Totalism. Totalism is a genre that similarly pushes the boundaries of both minimalism and post-minimalism by incorporating more complex rhythmic structures, and, as a result, has higher surface energy.

Qawwali

Qawwali is a form of religious vocal music in India and Pakistan using the raga and tala templates of Hindustani Classical Music. The ecstatic, trance-like singing reflects its origins in Sufi culture. The primary instruments are tabla, dholak, hand claps and harmonium. The rhythms are more aggressive and repetitive than other styles of Hindustani Classical Music music like Khyal. The style is frequently adapted in Filmi music. Iconic exponents of Qawwali include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen.

Renaissance Period

The Renaissance period encompasses European classical music from roughly 1400 to 1600.

Romanticism

Romantic music is Western Classical Music that was initially developed in the period from 1815-1910. While predominantly practiced in Europe in the 19th century, Romantic music possesses stylistic qualities that make it more than a mere geographical or chronological category. Romantic music can be characterized by its expressive and emotional qualities, especially in terms of melody.

The approach of Romantic composers was designed to break with the rigidities of the Classical Period. In his late works, Ludwig van Beethoven pioneered a new approach to utilizing orchestras, by varying instrumentation and timbre (e.g. his use of a chorus in the Ninth Symphony). Additionally, Beethoven inspired later Romantic composers through his advanced use of harmonies that modulated keys much more drastically than in the past, and through his use of melodic motifs that extended and evolved through lengthy pieces.

Expanding on those developments, Romantic composers frequently used techniques such as chromaticism, varying tempos, and increased dissonance to create an expressive, dramatic style, as can be seen in the symphonic work of Hector Berlioz and the Opera of Giuseppe Verdi.

The fusion of drama and music was promoted through the Tone Poem of Franz Liszt and Berlioz. Tone poems were designed to tell a story or advance a theme through music. This idea was extended by Richard Wagner, who used thematic melodies (leitmotifs) and an increasingly dramatic approach to composition.

Another key ingredient of Romantic music was the influx of new melodic sources. This was primarily driven by the strengthening of nationalism in the late 19th century. Composers such as Antonín Dvořák, Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin and Edvard Grieg all used elements of folk music (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Norwegian, respectively) in their work.

Romantic music has survived even beyond the Romantic period. Elements of Romanticism can be found in the work of late-20th century composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki and John Williams.

Saluang Klasik

Saluang Klasik is a traditional "royal court" form of music of the Minangkabau people, somewhat parallel to Tembang cianjuran of the Sundanese people. It is played by a duo or a trio of musicians, essential components being a Saluang (a kind of end-blown bamboo flute) player and a traditional singer. It is possible to also have a second Saluang, Sarunai (oboe) or Kendang (drum) added, though this is rare.

Serialism

Serialism is a compositional method in which pitches are grouped into sets (tone rows) to determine the order and frequency of their use. The genre was primarily developed in its basic form by Arnold Schoenberg, who devised his 'twelve-tone technique' with the intent of giving pitches equal weight, thus eliminating a sense of 'functional tonality'. Schoenberg explored early serialism in his music throughout the early 1920s, along with his pupils who comprised the 'Second Viennese School', including Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Composers in the post-war period extended the principles of serialism to include all facets of composition, such as rhythm, dynamics, register, articulation, and row form. This became known as Integral Serialism (or 'total serialism', among other names). The work of Webern inspired this direction to a certain extent, as did Olivier Messiaen's Mode de valeurs et d'intensités for piano. Though Messiaen was not necessarily a serialist composer, some of his pupils at the Darmstadt summer courses, Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, would become the main exponents of this new method, as would Milton Babbitt, who had independently arrived at his own similar method in the United States.

This period also marked the further dissemination of serialism, as composers more or less adopted it for their own means, experimenting with idiosyncratic use of integral serialism, and non-twelve tone serialism (tone rows of less/more than twelve notes).

Shaoxing Opera

(also known as Yuèjù, Yue Opera, Shaoxing Literal Opera)

Shaoxing opera is the second most popular type of Chinese Opera. It is also commonly called Yue opera because the province in which it developed belonged to the Yue State in ancient times.

According to Ma Chaoshui (1895-1975), Shaoxing opera was born in 1906. However, this proclamation was merely oral history, as the opera has roots dating back 800 years prior, being based on the ancient traditional form of opera called of Luodi Changshu Diao.

Shaoxing Opera differs from other Chinese opera forms in its femininity and lyricization. It was originally an all-male art, but later became an all-female art. Because Shaoxing opera is based on conversations, it is mostly noted for its lyricism. This differs greatly from Peking Opera, which is mostly instrument-driven.

Most notable performers include Yuan Xuefen, Wang Wenjuan, Fu Quanxiang, Lu Ruiyang, and Bi Chunfang.

Shashmaqam

Shashmaqam, or Six Maqams, is a tradition shared by Tajik Traditional Music and Uzbek Traditional Music. It was named a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003. The Shashmaqam is a modal suite that brings together lyrical and instrumental songs, poetry and dance. Its origins trace back to the Uzbek city of Bukhara with profound contributions from that city's historic Jewish population, as well as Sufi Islam and Persian Classical Music.

Shōmyō

(also known as Shoumyou)

Shōmyō is a type of Japanese Buddhist chant that utilizes the yō scale. Used primarily in the Tendai and Shingon sects, shōmyō originated from Indian Vedic chants which were then adapted by the Chinese during the mid-8th century and brought over by returning Japanese monks. Patterns used in the chant involve melodies sung using each breath and are woven strategically around the "open spaces" within the melodies, often causing intense and technical performances.

Sōkyoku

(also known as Soukyoku)

Sōkyoku is a style of Japanese Classical Music that gained popularity during the Edo period. It is played with a koto or a guzheng (its Chinese ancestor) and can sometimes be accompanied by shamisen and/or shakuhachi. Sōkyoku branches off into Eastern and Western Japanese families called Ikuta ryu and Yamada ryu respectively.

Sonorism

(also known as Sonorystyka)

Sonorism is a style of Modern Classical composition characterised by techniques and forms that emphasise musical texture and timbre. With a basis in Serialism, Stochastic Music and modernist use of chromatic tone cluster chords, sonoristic works often combine atypical instrumental sounds into unconventional counterpoint or extremely dense textures. This can include 'sound mass' composition (as used by Krzysztof Penderecki and Karel Husa), as well as other styles with the intention of de-emphasising traditionally important aspects of music, such as melody, rhythm and harmony, in favour of texture, timbre, dynamics and articulation. Sonorism is not necessarily orchestral or instrumental, as it can also be used in choral music that emphasises sonic aspects of texts, such as Penderecki's Stabat Mater, as well as Electroacoustic and Musique concrète works, such as those of Bogusław Schaeffer and Andrzej Dobrowolski. Sonorism often employs post-tonal chromaticism and microtonality, as well as usage of extended playing techniques and articulations of traditional instruments to create unusual tone colours.

Coined as a compositional concept in 1956, sonorism and its techniques emerged from the Polish avant-garde of the early 1960s. The genre was associated with the works of notable Polish composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki (most famously his Tren – Ofiarom Hiroszimy [Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima]), and the early styles of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Wojciech Kilar. Some composers and musicologists saw the genre as an alternative reaction against serialism, while others saw it as an expansion of its principles. Since the '60s, some sonoristic works have incorporated elements of Indeterminacy (notable in the works of Witold Lutosławski), Spectralism, Drone and Minimalism.

South Asian Classical

A meta-genre that covers the diverse forms of Classical Music from South Asia. (Examples: Carnatic, Odissi, Hindustani, Sufiana music, etc.)

Southeast Asian Classical

(also known as Gong-chime Orchestras)

Formal music developed in Southeast Asian countries (Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei Darussalam) usually in form of gong-chime orchestras such as gamelan, kulintang and pi phat. Typically such an ensemble is dominated by a wide range of percussion instruments (mostly gong-chime) being supported by various other instruments used to elaborate the composition. Compositions are usually only frameworks for "controlled improvisation", traditional performances often being extremely long from Western perception.

This kind of music was historically employed as an orchestration for rituals, drama, shadow puppets and dance performances rather than as a concerto music in itself. With time it developed into many sub-genres with various levels of formality, ranging from fast village dance music (Jaipongan) to exceptionally slow paced "royal court" styles.

The genre also refers to large percussion orchestras composed of non-metal instruments, e.g. made of bamboo, as well as other styles of formal/"royal" music of the region, to be decided in individual cases.

Spaghetti Western

(also known as Italo-Western)

Spaghetti Western is a style which was pioneered by Ennio Morricone with the music he composed in the mid-1960s for films in the Italian Spaghetti Western genre.

Morricone's unique arrangements and innovative choice of instruments, aided by multi-instrumentalist and whistler Alessandro Alessandroni, produced a sound that can be defined as a potpourri of "twangy" distorted baritone guitar, classical guitar, whistling, Jew's harp, trumpet, harmonica, piano, banjo, flute, violin, ocarina, chimes, bells, various percussion instruments and vocalizations (including brisk, low-pitched chants, shouting and animal-like calls), and often backed by an orchestral string ensemble and/or a choir. The style took cues from Cowboy music, Surf Rock, Mexican Music styles and Western Classical Music to create its signature sound and melancholic, wistful, often austere atmosphere. Commonly a piece builds from a slow resonance to a wall of sound climax to evoke the tension of stand offs, duels, and other typical tropes of Westerns.

The success of this highly distinctive sound in conjunction with the films (especially Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo and Morricone's partnership with director Sergio Leone) saw other composers adopt the style, among them Bruno Nicolai, Luis Enríquez Bacalov and Hugo Montenegro.

Spaghetti western music has continued to influence, whether through artists such as Cadillac Hitmen and James Wilsey adopting a similar guitar sound and mood, or through straight imitation/homage, for example, the video game soundtracks Outlaws and Wild Arms.

Spanish Classical

During Medieval times the most distinctive Classical Music performed in the Spanish region was a kind of Plainsong liturgical chant called "canto mozárabe" (Mozarabic chant, aka Hispanic chant), which was developed during the Visigoth era. Due to its neume notation without any lines, it can't be transcribed into standard European notation, but it is known to be more embellished and diverse than Gregorian Chant. The "cantigas" are sung poems of secular origins popularized as religious music by Alfonso X "El Sabio". Due to the Muslim conquest the classical music made in Al-Andalus commonly followed Arabic Music traditions. Therefore the music known as Andalusian Classical Music is not considered part of the Spanish classical tradition, although it was influential in the development of Spanish classical music.

The period from 1492 to 1681 is considered the Siglo de Oro (Golden Age) of Spanish arts. Music also flourished during this era with composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria or Francisco Guerrero, who both innovated upon Renaissance Music music, the former introduced dissonance and simple counterpoint melodies, whereas the latter was a precursor of Baroque Music music. An important innovation was the introduction of a four-course guitar called vihuela (a six double-strings instrument). Many notable composers from the Siglo de Oro, such as Alonso Mudarra, Miguel de Fuenllana and Enríquez de Valderrábano wrote vihuela music. The guitar continued to develop over the centuries, keeping a strong identity with Spain and its classical music. Zarzuela, which blended Operetta influences with Spanish theatre, folk and popular music and regional styles, was also developed during the Siglo de Oro.

Whereas the 18th century is considered a period of decline, music flourished again in the 19th century. Felipe Pedrell, considered the father of Spanish musicology, published the manifesto "Por nuestra música" (For our music) which stated that “a culture must create its own style of music, incorporating national and folk song into art music”. The exchange of ideas with Pedrell was very influential on Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, who studied and wrote about Spanish music of the past, mainly from the Siglo de Oro, and incorporated forms and styles of past music into their own music. Albéniz wrote Suite Española, integrating the dances and/or rhythmic patterns associated with the folklore of several Spanish regions, whereas Iberia is considered his masterpiece due to the synthesis of Impressionism and Spanish Folk Music, such as Chotis madrileño, seguidilla, saeta, fandanguillo, Sevillanas, Spanish Habanera or jota. Granados is also considered a nationalist composer, with works such as 10 danzas españolas, blending current European trends with Spanish folk music, such as popular Flamenco, jota and parranda.

Granados and Albéniz were precursors of a movement and style of nationalistic music known as neocasticismo, (casticismo, is defined as the cultivation of the purity of a culture, language, or lineage, free of foreign influence and neologisms). Therefore, neocasticismo could be considered Spanish own Neoclassicism. The main composers were Manuel de Falla, which blended Spanish folklore, mainly flamenco, with Modern Classical music in works such as El amor brujo and Siete canciones populares españolas; Joaquín Turina and Francisco Tárrega, who pioneered the blend of guitar music with Spanish folk influences and Modern Classical music, and later on Joaquín Rodrigo whose Concierto de Aranjuez is considered one of the best exponents of neocasticismo due to its references to Spanish dances and rhythms and the influence of styles such as flamenco and fandango. Zarzuela also flourished again, with a strong influence of Madrid's casticismo. Some of the most popular composers were Federico Chueca, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Ruperto Chapí.

Andrés Segovia popularized classical guitar music following mainly the Spanish romantic-modern and nationalist style, whereas Narciso Yepes also integrated Spanish folklore into classical guitar playing. There are also several guitarists that perform both folkloric and classical flamenco, for instance, Pepe Romero, Paco Peña, Manolo Sanlúcar, Celedonio Romero or Paco de Lucía. In comparison to folkloric flamenco, classical flamenco has more sustained notes, a softer sound and is more academic with no improvisation; the Spanish or flamenco guitar is commonly replaced by classical guitar.

Spectralism

(also known as Spectral Music)

Spectralism, or spectral music, is a compositional practice involving analysis, manipulation and transformation of sound spectra. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) used in computer based sound spectrum analysis is one of the most common methods in generating descriptive data. Spectral compositions are focused primarily on timbre and texture, eschewing melody and harmony. Tristan Murail has described spectral music as an attitude towards composition rather than a set of techniques, an aesthetic rather than style. Origins of spectralism can be traced in the works of Edgard Varèse, Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis.

The name "spectral music" was invented by a French composer Hugues Dufourt in 1979. Spectralism was primarily developed in IRCAM, Paris, pioneered by composers such as Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail. Another early pioneer is Danish composer Per Nørgård, whose work Voyage Into the Golden Screen is one of the earliest examples of spectralism. Spectral techniques were developed independently by many Romanian composers, such as Octavian Nemescu and Horațiu Rădulescu. In the "Romanian school" of spectralism compositions were usually created without the use of computers and spectrograms, which resulted in rawer sound. Romanian spectralism often draws inspiration from Romanian Folk Music. Within Romanian spectralism emerged a substyle called hyper-spectralism, represented by Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram. It is characterized by especially dense textures and heavy use of drones.

Stochastic Music

Stochastic music is a method of Modern Classical composition primarily developed by Iannis Xenakis in the early 1950s, and described in his book Formalized Music. This music arose from Xenakis' critique of Serialism, which in Xenakis' point of view just substituted the natural causality of tonal music by the stricter abstract causality in order to create atonal music. However, Xenakis concludes, this causality cannot be perceived and what the listener hears is just a random set of tones, which causes that serialism crushes under its complexity.

Xenakis meant to create music that would evade bindings of causality but would remain logical, and its inherent logic would be perceivable on the macroscopic level. This often results in a slowly evolving mass of sound, a concept which inspired Sonorism composers. "Stochastic" is a term borrowed from theory of probability and Xenakis describes it as "an asymptotic evolution towards a stable state, towards a kind of goal, of stochos". Stochastic music is kind of guided indeterminism, where the following state is only partially determined by the preceding state, meaning that the concrete state n+2 follows after the state n+1 only with some probability. Every aspect of music, be it pitch, duration, timbre, dynamics and so on can be subordinated to such laws of chance.

Stochastic music heavily borrows from mathematics such as law of large numbers, probability theory, game theory, Boolean algebra, Markov chains, Poisson law, group theory and so on. These mathematical means are used to guide the indeterminism. However, this method is different to Indeterminacy, where the randomness is not guided by mathematical or other such laws. Also, the output of stochastic processes is usually fixed in a traditional score in the end, where indeterminacy often uses open scores and even alternative notations.

Stochastic music is sometimes referred to as a compositional technique, sometimes as a genre. Though stochastic music borrows heavily from both serialism and indeterminacy, it distinguishes itself from either through its core philosophical ideas, mainly the idea that application of scientific, or other non-musical notions of causality onto music can enrich our perception of music and redefine the concept of "harmony".

Usage of computers is also welcomed in stochastic music because of the need for many calculations that take a long time when done by hand. This led to scores created by computers using preset algorithms, as well as to purely Electronic pieces.

Stochastic music has very few followers besides Xenakis, most notably James Tenney and Francisco Guerrero.

Sufiana kalam

(also known as Sufiana Mausiqi, Sufyana kalam, Kashmiri Classical Music)

Sufiana kalam is the classical music of the Kashmir region, the northernmost part of the Indian subcontinent. Created through the cultural exchange that took place after the arrival of Sufi Islam from Persia sometime in the 14th/15th century, this ancient art form combines elements of traditional Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Persian, and Hindustani traditions, utilizing traditional Kashmiri instruments and musical scales, known as maqams.

Performed by Sufi mystic ensembles of Kashmir, sufiana kalam is primarily vocal, choral music, accompanied by instruments such as santoor, saz-e-kashmiri, setar and wasool or dokra. The dance by girls known as hafizas that accompanies a performance is known as the hafiz nagma.

Due to globalization, socioeconomic changes in the region, growing popularity of other musical forms, as well as the politically volatile situation Kashmir is in, sufiana kalam is currently on the verge of extinction, with only a handful of practitioners still around keeping it alive.

Symphony

Symphonies are large-scale Western Classical Music works for orchestra, typically with four movements:

1. allegro, almost always in sonata-allegro form

2. a slow movement

3. scherzo or minuet

4. finale, typically allegro or rondo

Early symphonies were often only three movements, and were relatively short (10-20 minutes). The symphony evolved during the late Classical Period; by the start of the Romanticism, they were in four movements and typically 30-60 minutes long, with a few notable symphonies lasting more than an hour (such as Beethoven's ninth symphony and nearly all of Mahler's symphonies).

The symphony continues to be a popular genre among modern composers; however, the traditional four-movement structure is more frequently altered or disregarded (for example Pettersson's symphonies are usually in single movement).

Tembang cianjuran

(also known as Tembang Sunda, Cianjuran, Seni mamaos cianjuran)

Tembang cianjuran is a classical style of Sundanese music developed from the earlier tradition of pantun (where the singer narrates lengthy epic stories with an accompaniment of kecapi). The genre was created during the Dutch occupation of Indonesia, around the middle of nineteenth century on a court of regent Kabupaten Cianjur.

This genre of music is a form of sung free-verse poetry in Sundanese language, usually by a solo vocalist which is accompanied by a mellow-sounding Kecapi Suling ensemble. The emphasis is put on highly ornamental and distinguished singing techniques, demanding extraordinary vocal skills from the singer. Traditional performances could take up to several hours to complete, but this is seldom a case nowadays.

Thai Classical

(also known as Siamese Classical)

Classical music of Thai people that emerged in its current form in Thai royal court around 800 years ago, based on a traditional Thai sound-scale of seven tempered notes, and usually subdivided into three main categories:

• Piphat (wind instruments, gong-chimes, xylophones, cymbals and other percussion instruments)

• Khruang Sai (fiddles, zither, flute, some percussion instruments)

• Mahori (combination of the above two: fiddles, gong-chimes, sometimes xylophones)

Traditionally Thai Classical Music served a purpose of providing musical background to performances, rituals and events rather than being a concerto music for the sake of itself.

While compositions do exist, they're usually treated only as a central melodic framework around which instrumentalists improvise.

Thumri

(also known as Thumree)

Thumri is a classical style based on North Indian folk literature. The common themes for a Thumri are romance, separation and devotion. Since the poets who composed the early Thumris were devotees of Lord Krishna, most of the Thumris describe a female devotion to the Lord.

The present form of Thumri is supposed to have originated in Lucknow between 1847 and 1856 though the similarity of Thumri with Khyal suggests an earlier origin.

Tone Poem

(also known as Musical Tableau, Symphonic Poem)

Tone poem is a programmatic Western Classical Music work for orchestra, usually in a single movement, that is entirely based on external non-musical themes, ideas, tales, stories, etc. Tone poems arose at the second half of the 19th century and remained popular throughout the 20th century. The term was coined by Franz Liszt when he described his 13 orchestral works as "symphonic poems". Among other famous composers of tone poems are Claude Debussy, Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss or Bedřich Smetana.

Totalism

Totalism can be defined as a continuation of Minimalism (specifically seen alongside Post-Minimalism). Kyle Gann, in his writings on minimalism, called totalism the "having your cake and eating it too" of minimalist music. It utilises the latter's tonality and background complexity, whilst adding complex rhythmic structures and putting emphasis on surface energy. Thus, totalism can appeal to lay audiences whilst retaining the complexities of post-minimalism, and without a need to appear "pretty" or adhere to specific consonant ideals. The genre came to light during the 1980s and 1990s.

Structurally, totalism can often be found with unique and complex polyrhythms, two (or more) tempos utilised simultaneously, and borrows theories from Integral Serialism of a compositional aesthetic applied to aspects of composition beyond pitch and melody. On the latter, one specific component found within totalism is the performance of instruments played harmoniously, but written in altering pulses of quarter-notes, dotted quarter-notes, and triplet quarter-notes. This was developed from the theories of Henry Cowell, who suggested this rhythm structure that would naturally be applied to pitch. Whilst also containing mixed consonance and dissonance factors, the sonority of totalist music is generally limited to a minimum.

In addition to Gann, notable artists of totalism include: Rhys Chatham, John Luther Adams, and Glenn Branca.

Tragédie en musique

(also known as tragédie lyrique, French baroque opera)

Tragédie en musique is a genre of French Opera from the Baroque Music period. It was developed in the second half of the 17th century by composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and his long-time librettist Philippe Quinault. Initially, they looked for ways to put French language dramas to music, as they found the contemporaneous Italian Opera Seria inappropriate. Instead, they looked to French tragedy and employed some of its rules: 12 and 10-syllable poetic lines were used for recitatives and 8-syllable poetic lines were used for arias. With this approach they actually managed to capture the natural rhythm of French speech.

In the same vein, their opera as a whole can be characterised by stronger unity of music and drama compared to Italian opera. While in opera seria, drama moves forward in secco ("dry") recitatives, regularly alternated with lyrical, dramatically static da capo arias, in French baroque opera, recitatives intersect and merge to arias and back much more freely. Arias are also shorter and not often in da capo form, and recitatives are composed in greater detail and often accompanied by multiple instruments, as opposed to semi-improvisational secco recitatives accompanied by solo harpsichord. Moreover, French baroque opera uses greater variety of numbers: arias for multiple voices, long orchestral numbers, simphonies, many choral numbers, ritournelles, vaudeville songs and, most notably, ballet or dance numbers. The latter feature remained a staple of French opera long after the Baroque period.

Structurally, French baroque opera is in five acts with an allegorical prologue. The prologue usually commented on current political events in metaphorical way and praised the French king and nobility. Despite greater unity of music and drama in these operas' vocal composition, many acts often end with a long orchestral, choral or dance divertissement, which from dramatic point of view works as a kind of static tableau.

Thematically, tragédie en musique draws from the same sources as opera seria, that is, mainly from classical mythology. It is a serious genre and the overall atmosphere is noble and tragic. From the beginning, French baroque opera depended on lavish and expensive set pieces and productions.

While still popular in 18th century, today French baroque opera is not part of the standard operatic repertoire. Apart from Lully, arguably the most important composer of French baroque opera is Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Turkish Classical

(also known as Ottoman Classical Music, Türk Sanat Müziği, Saray Musikisi)

Originally developed during the time of the Ottoman Empire, classical music in Turkey was at first generally performed only in palaces, mosques and Mevlevi lodges. However, since then it has become more widespread. Turkish classical music uses the makam modal system, with the primary emphasis being on the singers, who are accompanied by small ensembles of musicians. Famous composers include Dede Efendi and Tanburi Cemil Bey.

Vietnamese Classical

(also known as Vietnamese Court Music, Nac Dai Noi)

Vietnamese Court Music, called Nac Dai Noi, or "music of the palace," can be performed by a twelve-instrument ensemble (for Dai Nhac music) or a fourteen-instrument ensemble (for Nha Nhac music). Nha Nhac corresponds to Chinese Yayue and Japanese Gagaku traditions.

Vietnamese Opera

(also known as Hát tuồng, Hát bội)

Vietnamese opera, known as hát tuồng in northern Vietnam or hát bội in the south, is a type of classical musical theatre and its associated form of Vietnamese Classical Music. It is strongly influenced by Chinese Opera, which is said to have been imported to the country in the 13th century, from which Vietnamese opera evolved. The specific form, Peking Opera, particularly influenced the style as it progressed, with a lot of similarities between the two. Originally, it was only played in royal courts and for the upper class, but as time went on it became more accessible to the peasantry, with traveling troupes forming. The genre reached the height of its popularity in the 19th century, with even the emperor of the period writing operas.

Each performance begins with a vocal section, detailing the plot. The rest of the performance is then accompanied by a traditional orchestra, which flows with the actors’ dramatic, high-pitched vocals and accentuates plot points. The orchestra sits to the right of the stage, and generally consists of the instruments: trống chiến (a drum), đồng la (a gong), kèn (a conical double-reed instrument), đàn nhị (a bowed string instrument), and sometimes a flute. Melodies for music are not fixed, but based on tonal systems. Visually, actors wear elaborate costumes with makeup specifically chosen to show a characters' traits, with certain colours and facial features corresponding to certain qualities of a character. Set design is minimal and symbolic. The plots are usually historical in nature, focusing on themes of Vietnamese morality, etiquette, and legends.

Vietnamese opera was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the country until the 20th century, along with a type of light-hearted folk musical theatre called hát chèo. In the early 20th century, the French occupation of the region brought in new forms of drama from Europe, leading to the popularisation of a new style of musical theatre named cải lương, along with non-musical plays called kịch nói, especially in the south. The decline of the classical Vietnamese opera is said to have also been due in part to the French attempting to enforce European morals to the form. The Vietnamese communist party attempted somewhat to revive the style, albeit with a restricted catalog of works, arranging festivals for the style in the 1970s. Going into the 21st century, Vietnamese opera is now fairly rarely performed, only played by specialist troupes.

Western Classical Music

(also known as Western Art Music, European Classical)

The term Classical is used to cover a broad range of art music that originated in Europe around 500 AD, including the Medieval Classical Music, Renaissance Music, Baroque Music, Classical Period, Romanticism, and Modern Classical eras. Notable composers in the genre include Pérotin, Machaut, Palestrina, Händel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Schönberg, Stravinsky, Cage, and Reich.

Although there are notable exceptions, particularly in the early and later periods, Western Classical music can be characterized by its tonal system and harmonic language, dodecaphonic tuning system, fixed notational system, standard musical forms, and instrumentation. When compared broadly to other traditions of music, Western Classical Music tends to place more emphasis on harmony and less on rhythm, and relies more on fixed performance rather than improvisation.

The genre has changed radically over time, and two pieces picked from different periods may sound vastly different; however, the gradual development, its evolutionary lineage, and its history lends cohesiveness to the many individual styles and movements within the genre.

Yayue

Literally translating as 'elegant music', Yayue is a form of Chinese Classical Music, which incorporates elements of early Chinese Folk Music and religious traditions. Yayue was originally used as imperial court music, and went on to notably influence other East Asian traditional styles, such as Gagaku (from Japan) and Nhã Nhạc (from Vietnam). Yayue uses a variety of string, wind and percussion instruments, including the Guqin (a seven-stringed zither), the dizi (a transverse bamboo flute), the Bianqing (stone tablets hit with a mallet) and the sheng (a free reed mouth organ).

Zarzuela

Zarzuela is a Spanish dramatic genre where spoken scenes are mixed with passages sung in operatic or popular styles. Themes are usually comedic and often contain regionalisms, which has led to development of local traditions in Spain and former Spanish colonies. The distinct sound of zarzuela comes from the use of local folk and popular music styles, like Pasodoble, tonadilla, fandango, pasacalles, Chotis madrileño and Spanish Habanera. Instruments unusual in regular operetta, such as guitars and castanets, are often used.

The style originated in 1657 with "El laurel de Apolo" by Juan Hidalgo, though the golden era of zarzuela is considered to be mid-to-late 19th century. Some of the most important composers of that era are Federico Chueca, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Ruperto Chapí. During this golden era most zarzuelas incorporated a strong influence of Madrid's casticismo (Madrid local culture, habits, jargon and settings). Three acts zarzuelas are referred as género grande (major genre), whereas one-act zarzuelas are referred as género chico (minor genre). Género chico zarzuelas are less complex and sophisticated, with themes such as local customs and everyday life in Madrid, and are aimed towards a more widespread audience, due to the low tickets prices.

In the early 20th century zarzuela evolved into Spanish Revue (revista musical española) referred as género ínfimo (banal and vulgar genre), with less defined plots, unlinked comedy numbers and more openly sexual references, in a similar style to Cuplé. Nonetheless, zarzuela composers such as Federico Moreno Torroba and Pablo Sorozábal kept zarzuela alive during the first half of the 20th century. Zarzuela went into decline after the 1950s, but since the 1970s zarzuela popularity has increased again, even though none popular new zarzuelas have been written in the last decades.

Defintions courtesy of rateyourmusic.com

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